Sidelined contributors expected to be ‘full-go’ for training camp, says James Franklin

Penn State football was without several key pieces of its 2025 roster during spring practice. Now in the first week of June, the Nittany Lions are anticipating that linebacker Tony Rojas, tight end Andrew Rappleyea, and offensive lineman Anthony Donkoh will be ready to go come training camp in August.

“We expect all three to be fully cleared. Not just for camp, but really for the majority of the summer as well,” James Franklin commented on Thursday. “I don’t think all three of them, right now, are totally cleared. They would have some limitations right now. But, I would say, if you guys came to a workout, you wouldn’t know, if that makes sense. But there’s some modifications either in the weight room or restrictions on the field.

“But all of them we anticipate being full-go from day one of training camp.”

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Both Rappleyea and Donkoh missed prolonged periods of the 2024 season with injury. Rappleyea has been sidelined since making the season-opening start at West Virginia last August while Donkoh missed the remainder of the year after exiting the Nittany Lions’ November 23 win over Minnesota early.

Rojas didn’t miss any time on the field last fall but was seen with his arm in a sling during much of the program’s winter conditioning.

Penn State loses promising young defender to injury

Penn State football defensive end Max Granville. © Alex Disabella / Basic Blues Nation, 2024.

It hasn’t been all positive news on the injury front for Penn State football to kick off the summer. On Thursday, we learned that redshirt freshman defensive end Max Granville will miss an extended period of time with an undisclosed injury.

“Obviously, not an ideal situation,” Franklin said. “And, my heart breaks for the kid and the family, and obviously not what we wanted or needed either. Was a guy that played last year; we were depending on taking that next step this year.

“Other guys are going to have to step up now. So we’ll see how that all plays out. Kind of early to say at this stage. But between obviously, Dani and Fisher, and Harvey and Mason Robinson and [Mylachi] Williams and [Enai] White and [Yvan] Kemajou and there’s some guys in that room, [Dayshaun] Burnett, that was here in the spring, and then some guys that just showed up as well.”

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