Franklin: Team ‘banged-up’ heading into matchup with No. 6 Michigan State

For the nation’s sack leader, Penn State’s Carl Nassib, a week or two on the sidelines has not been fun.

The senior defensive end played just a few snaps against Michigan after appearing to suffer an injury against Northwestern two weeks prior. He stood for the rest of last week’s loss on the sideline, and looked like he was fuming.

“Yeah, he was really disappointed on Saturday,” said Franklin after practice on Tuesday. “Just really, he wasn’t getting better fast enough. He tried to do our warmups, and me and Sean (Spencer) were watching him and we could tell he wasn’t going to be able to go. He tried to go a couple plays and we had to shut him down.

“He was frustrated and disappointed. He’s an ultimate teammate in terms of attitude and demeanor, and I think more than anything it killed him to be on the sideline in a big game for us at home, his last game at home, and a closely-contested game where he could’ve been the difference.”

Franklin said he thinks Penn State will see starting quarterback Connor Cook (recovering from injury himself) when the team travels to East Lansing, Mi., to take on No. 6 Michigan State this weekend. Having Nassib in to help with the pass rush would be ideal, if that were the case.

“Obviously not having Carl last week, you know, one of the better players in the country, one of the most productive players in the country, you could argue that he could’ve been the difference in five plays, and those five plays could’ve been significant.

“We’re hoping to get him back along with some other guys.”

Franklin said on Tuesday that this was the “most banged-up” he’s seen his team in the year and a half that he’s been at Penn State.

“There’s not a whole lot we can do, the guys that are banged up are banged up. Hopefully they’ll be back,” he said. “We’ll limit them in practice and then the medical staff makes those decisions. We hope to have some of them back for Saturday.”

Nittany Lions give thanks

“You have to be careful with Thanksgiving. School’s out, they’re all worried about where they’re going to go eat, their families, there’s a bunch of young players on the team so making sure we have a plan and that it doesn’t become a distraction.”

Franklin said he let the players who are sick, hurt or not on the travel roster go home for a short break, if they wanted, and the rest went bowling on Monday, and went through 1,800 chicken wings and 65 pizzas, by his estimation.

“Then we’ll come out at about 6:15 tomorrow (Thursday) and we do that so that we can try to get all of our responsibilities done and give them as much time for Thanksgiving as they possibly can get — same with the coaches, to be honest with you,” he said. The team will also have a Thanksgiving training table.

“Then some of the local players will take others with them (home), and some of the other players will go to coaches’ houses if they have nowhere else to go.”

Penn State travels to Michigan State on Friday, and then kicks off against the Spartans at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday.

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Franklin: Team ‘banged-up’ heading into matchup with No. 6 Michigan State."