STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Starting cornerback John Reid sustained a knee injury in spring practice and will not take the field this season, James Franklin said Thursday night during his weekly radio show.
It's been assumed since April when Reid went down that he would take a redshirt, but the fact that Franklin didn't rule him out for the season when asked at various points left the door open for speculation. The Lions' cornerback potentially could've played toward the end of this season, Franklin said, but instead the Lions will use a redshirt on Reid.
"I actually think if we really needed to, we could probably play him this year toward the end of the year," Franklin said. Reid will have two years of eligibility remaining should he opt to stay for all five years. "We won't do that because he has a redshirt available."
Reid has been on every road trip this season, taking turns handling the signaling on the sideline and continues helping the Lions' cornerbacks.
While that's been a blow to the Lions' secondary this season, it sets them up nicely next year with a healthy Reid plus the return of redshirt junior cornerback Amani Oruwariye, who Franklin said on the radio show will be back next season. Oruwariye, the Lions' third corner, has been a ball hawk this year making some aerobatic interceptions and with those two as the foundation, plus freshmen Lamont Wade and Tariq Castro-Fields, who both burned redshirts this season, and Zech McPhearson who contributes on special teams, the Lions should have a strong cornerback group next season.
So while Oruwairye is one name off the list of potential Lions headed to the NFL, Franklin was also asked on the show how he advises players about their pro potential. The head coach said he's honest with them, despite everyone thinking they're going to be first-round picks and handles it on a case-by-case basis.
If a player is projected to go in the first round Franklin said he won't try to convince that player to even think about sticking around because after all the guaranteed money is too good to pass us. He said that helps him build credibility with the other players who he advises to stay, that way they know he's not trying to keep everyone despite what their draft grade says.
"If a guy is a guaranteed first-round pick that's life changing," Franklin said, comparing that too a computer company coming to campus and offering IST majors lucrative job offers with a year of school left. "Don't criticize my guys [for leaving early]."
While Saquon Barkley is a projected first-round pick that presumably will be having that talk with Franklin within the coming month, the next part of Barkley's career could get interesting as the Lions come down the home stretch of the regular season and look toward a bowl game. As was the case last season when Christian McCaffrey skipped the Sun Bowl and Leonard Fournette skipped the Citrus Bowl both in favor of training for the combine and the NFL draft, one has to wonder with a national title off the table what Barkley's status will be for the Lions' bowl game.
Should Penn State end up in a New Year's Six game then perhaps he'd play, but beyond that there certainly could be an interesting conversation to be had.
QUICK HITS
• Franklin said on the radio show that the Lions let the loss to Ohio State linger too long last week. That's the first time he's addressed it that directly after players last week said they thought they were in line for a rebound game against Michigan State.
• Sports science continues helping Penn State and Franklin said the staff learned that their Tuesday practices have been too heavy with players coming off Saturday games and therefore the Lions adjusted part of their practice routine. Now, some of Tuesday's periods were shifted to Wednesday to help the team maximize their health.
• During Franklin's one year with the Green Bay Packers where he served as the wide receiver's coach he said the players and staff regularly had hot chocolate and chicken broth on the sidelines during games. While the Lions won't be doing that for this weekend's chilly noon kick with temperatures set for a high of 36 degrees, the Lions will have heaters up and down the sideline, Franklin said. He said he wants the players to be as comfortable as possible and that means having more than just one heater down on the field.