Nassib absent from Penn State loss

Carl Nassib played the first few snaps on defense for Penn State in Saturday’s 28-16 loss to No. 14 Michigan, but spent the rest of it on the sideline pacing, and likely fuming, fully dressed with his helmet on.

Nassib had gotten banged-up two weeks ago during the loss to Northwestern, and according to head coach James Franklin, had been limited all week and through the bye week in practice.

“We hoped if by limiting his reps in practice all week that we would see how he would feel on Saturday,” said Franklin. “I could tell Friday at the walk through he wasn’t feeling great, but he wouldn’t tell us that. And then, on Saturday, you could tell during warm up that he wasn’t feeling great and once we saw that he wasn’t going to be able to go and help us and help himself, (so) we made the change and pulled him out.”

While offensive tackle Andrew Nelson was back in the lineup and played a full game, tight end Mike Gesicki left the game and was seen on the sideline with his shoulder wrapped. Tight end Brent Wilkerson entered the postgame press room with his left shoulder heavily wrapped, as well.

Also absent was senior safety Jordan Lucas, who suffered an injury early on this season that ultimately ended his career.

Safety Malik Golden, who earned the start in his place, wore his No. 9 jersey to honor Lucas.

“Jordan is like a brother to me,” said Golden. “We talked about it last week during the bye week…Like I said, he’s my brother so he was pretty happy I did it for him.”

Special Teams ‘very, very inconsistent’

Special teams hurt Penn State on Saturday.

DeAndre Thompkins fumbled on a punt to lead to a Michigan touchdown, and the Nittany Lions gave up a 55-yard kick return to Jourdan Lewis that set up the Wolverines’ final score.

They were the glaring mistakes for a unit Franklin called “very, very inconsistent” after the loss.

“There’s some issues,” Franklin said. “There’s no doubt about it that we got to get cleaned up. It’s everything. It’s coverage, it’s kicking, it’s kicking location.”

Thompkins dropped a punt in the third quarter — his third fumble on a punt this season. Michigan’s Jehu Chesson recovered the fumble, and the Wolverines scored three plays later on a 1-yard touchdown run by Sione Houma to take a 21-10 lead.

After Penn State pulled within 21-16 in the fourth quarter, Lewis returned the kickoff 55 yards. Michigan put together a 5-play, 40-yard scoring drive capped by a 1-yard touchdown run by De’Veon Smith.

“It puts the defense in a tough spot, but I mean we still had time to get a three-and-out,” Penn State cornerback Trevor Williams said. “I ended up having a pass interference call that kind of hurt us, but we still got Michigan State next week.”

Getting real with Jabrill

Receiver Saeed Blacknall caught his second touchdown pass of the year on Saturday.

It was a 26-yard floater that Blacknall managed to pull out of the air in the back corner of the end zone, and it came a bit easier after his coverage, utility player and safety Jabrill Peppers, looked like he lost his tracking on the ball and did not turn around in time.

Blacknall’s catch meant a lot to him, personally, but it had even more meaning because he and Peppers have a long history.

“It goes a little deeper than that,” he said. “In high school, I used to train with him...and we got highly recruited. We also used to talk (about the) game, prior to the schools that we are at now, so it was a little more than that.”

Peppers looked upset that he missed so badly on his coverage of Blacknall, but the wideout said he took it well.

“He just said, ‘Nice catch,’ and we went our ways,” he said.

Class of 2017 recruit commits

Penn State’s Class of 2017 earned another commit on Saturday morning, before the game.

Linebacker Dylan Rivers, from Stephens City, Va., announced via Twitter that he had pledged to the program.

Rivers, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound four-star prospect, joins quarterback Sean Clifford in the class.

Penn State seniors honored

Nineteen seniors were honored before the game, for Penn State’s Senior Day.

The families of the 19 players stood on the field at each hash mark as their respective senior jogged out of the tunnel and down the line as fans in the stadium cheered.

“I think emotions were pretty high,” said Williams. “I said I wasn’t going to get emotional but I saw my teammates get emotional, so I was trying to fight back some tears.”

This story was originally published November 21, 2015 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Nassib absent from Penn State loss."