Pair of Penn State football players suffer ‘long term’ injuries, announces James Franklin

Penn State football will be down two Nittany Lions along the line of scrimmage as it looks to make a potential College Football Playoff run into December.

On Monday afternoon, James Franklin announced that both offensive tackle Anthony Donkoh and defensive lineman Alonzo Ford suffered “long term” injuries during Saturday’s 26-25 win at Minnesota.

“We overcame a lot of adversity on the road and found a way to get a big time, Big Ten win, which is tough to do. You look across college football, you know that’s hard to do,” Franklin said at his weekly press conference.

“I thought our guys did a really good job of maximizing moments and opportunities. When I talked about adversity that we faced at Minnesota, there was a lot of reasons for that, right?”

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Anthony Donkoh exited on the Nittany Lions’ first offensive series, and was later carted off the sideline. He had been in and out of lineup with injuries since October 5, but had made strides in recent weeks.

“I’d say it’s been a battle,” Donkoh shared following Penn State’s win over Washington earlier this month. “But I’ve been doing a really good job working with the trainers and communicating to Coach Trautwein and Coach Franklin about how I’m feeling and to be able to adjust with how I’m feeling. That’s what helped me be able to get on the field and [be] executing through my injuries that I got.”

A transfer from Old Dominion, Alonzo Ford missed all of last season due to injury. He had become a key depth figure along the defensive front in 2024, tallying 16 tackles this season.

Penn State football will close the regular season Saturday at home against Maryland.

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