Blue White Illustrated

N A T E   B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M S E P T E M B E R 2 1 , 2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 9 Wartman-White out for season Senior linebacker suffers knee injury during Lions' victory over Temple Nyeem Wartman-White will miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury, Penn State head coach James Franklin announced Tuesday aAernoon. At his weekly news conference in Beaver Stadium, the Nittany Lion head coach began with an opening statement in which he revealed the severity of the injury that Wartman-White had suffered in Penn State's 34-27 victory against Temple on Saturday. "I feel terrible for Nyeem Wartman- White. He will be out for the season, which is obviously significant," Franklin said. "He's worked really, really hard and has had an unbelievable attitude, and from a leadership standpoint as well. Obviously, we're here to support Nyeem every step of the way." Wartman-White had missed most of the previous season with a torn ACL in his leA knee. He went down again on Saturday, his right knee buckling at the 32-yard line while he was trying to spring a block for return man John Reid. Franklin explained Saturday aAernoon that, in the Lions' punt safe formation, the normal defense stays on the field in anticipation of a possible fake. "It was punt safe. Punt safe is [when] your defense stays on the field [for] the punt return," Franklin said. "He is not starting on any special teams, he is not on one, but when you go punt safe, that's your defense, so in case they run a fake or they line up in an offensive for- mation you have people out there to stop it. We'll do it week by week, whether it's fourth-and-3 or less, fourth-and-4 or less. I don't think Temple ever goes punt return team. They go punt safe the whole time. Everyone has different philosophies, but that is fairly common." The injury is a devastating one for Wartman-White, who just returned this season aAer missing nearly all of his red- shirt junior campaign in 2015. Suffering the same injury to his leA knee during the second quarter of Penn State's loss at Temple last September, Wartman-White worked to make it back to the field for his final season of eligibility. He was able to do exactly that, starting alongside Brandon Bell and Jason Cabinda at linebacker in the Nittany Lions' opener against Kent State, then leading the team with nine tackles, in- cluding three tackles for loss, in a loss at Pitt in week two. The injury is the third serious injury to Wartman-White's knees during his five- year career at Penn State. Beginning as a true freshman in 2012, he played in the opener against Ohio, then went down for the season and earned a medical redshirt aAer hurting his knee on the opening kickoff at Vir- ginia in the second week. Returning for his redshirt freshman year, Wartman played in 12 games and started eight. He followed that effort in 2014 by starting 12 games and making 75 tackles on the season. Having spent his medical redshirt on his debut season in 2012, Wartman- White's playing career as a Nittany Lion has likely come to its conclusion with the injury, though Franklin leA open the pos- sibility of a sixth year. "We'll just see how this whole thing plays out," Franklin said. "He's already graduated, which is awesome, and then we'll see what the future holds." In Wartman-White's absence, Koa Farmer has been moved to the Sam line- backer position, which is reflected in the latest depth chart. Two other starting linebackers, Jason Cabinda and Brandon Bell, were out of action against Temple and are not listed on this week's depth chart. The Lions' starting linebackers against Michigan are expected to be sophomores Jake Cooper and Manny Bowen outside and redshirt junior Bran- don Smith in the middle. Wartman-White wraps up Pitt running back Qadree Ollison during Penn State's game against the Panthers earlier this month. The senior line- backer finished with a team- high nine tack- les, but he was injured a week later against Temple. Photo by Steve Manuel

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