Just confirmed that transfer DT Alonzo Ford is OUT for the season with an injury.
Football DT Alonzo Ford out for the season
- Thread starter Richie O
- Start date
Ugh. Don’t know how he was looking, but DT is one position we can’t afford to lose depth. Feel sorry for the kid. Next man up!
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Time to move Ioane over to DT. We need some size at DT. We are gonna get trucked again this year against OSU & UM.
Actually Ford was around 280 and probably was going to play some then redshirt, BUT they can afford ZERO more injuries now on that D line.
It seemed Ford was going to be a rotation guy this season and his bigger impact would be 2024 after Beamon and Ellies are gone.
Never good to lose a player that would play some, but if the rest of the DT's stay relatively healthy and the reports about Artis are correct there is still plenty of DT depth for 2023. But it would be nice to hear something positive about how Townley is practicing.
Might the staff move a walkon olinemen over to DT? Who knows.
Might the staff move loane over to DT? Not a chance. Loane seems to be looked at as a starting caliber OG right now and future All B10 player on the OL.
Very young? Ford was not one of PSU's older, highly experienced DT's, being in the class of 2020 out of high school. The same class as Townley who the staff took back from the portal but has yet to see any significant playing time and has not been mentioned as even a key rotational DT for 2023.
Never good to lose a player that would play some, but if the rest of the DT's stay relatively healthy and the reports about Artis are correct there is still plenty of DT depth for 2023. But it would be nice to hear something positive about how Townley is practicing.
Might the staff move a walkon olinemen over to DT? Who knows.
Might the staff move loane over to DT? Not a chance. Loane seems to be looked at as a starting caliber OG right now and future All B10 player on the OL.
Very young? Ford was not one of PSU's older, highly experienced DT's, being in the class of 2020 out of high school. The same class as Townley who the staff took back from the portal but has yet to see any significant playing time and has not been mentioned as even a key rotational DT for 2023.
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Artis is someone I’ve been curious about, given his size. What are we hearing about him in practice?
Maybe so. But, in discussions about DTs ready to contribute this season, Ford’s name never came up.
I agree with others that ford's injury is much more likely to hurt us next season. He was likely to make the rotation next season, not this season. And he still may although we saw with others like Isaac that it may take more than 1 season to get the fastball back. And for a guy like PJ, it never really did come back.
Curious thing is what did he hurt. Leg injuries are the most damning because you can't do much of anything that will improve your game. Purely rehabbing until you are cleared then building back from months of losing your gains.
Default response is to blame coaching. Too much contact....but let's be sure there's real competition for every spot. This is precisely why preseason hype is worthless. Every preseason top 10 team is 3 or 4 key injuries (or less) from disaster. It's football. Not a pillow fight.
Not long ago he was graded a top 10 DT in the BiG
basicbluesnation.com
New Penn State football transfer defensive lineman graded top 10 in the Big Ten
This new Penn State football transfer has been graded as a top 10 defensive lineman in the Big Ten.
basicbluesnation.com
Here are the other DTs:
Ellies
Beamon
Izzard
Durant
Van den Berg
Artis
Townley
Blanding (true Freshman)
Sam Safia (walk-on)
Out of that list the first five and then possibly Artis (as 6th) will be in normal rotation. Ideally, Artis & Townley are able to get some good PT against the OOC opponents and are then able to contribute spot duty during the B1G season.
We are going to get trucked only now bc we lost our 5th/6th best DT?
OSU did not truck us last year. Not even close.
Yep, Ellies, Izzard and Vdb all play 1 tech, but from what I've seen Izzard is disruptive enough to move to 3 tech if the team needed that. It would seem that given his size Artis would also be a 1 tech and there have been vague reports of him coming along nicely and being ready to contribute this season.
Beamon and Durant look like the only true 3 tech DT's with experience. It would seem that Townley would end up there as well, and possibly Blanding.
The staff also has the option to possibly have Vanover slide inside at times to play 3 tech as he practiced and played DT off and on during his first few years in the program. DE seems to have lots of depth especially if Lyons or one of the other true freshmen are ready for some game snaps.
Ford was probably going to battle Townley for the 3rd team 3-tech DT spot and his injury does change the equation some. But with the experience that the main group of experienced DT's have the flexibility seems to be there to cover for his absense.
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He was a supposed run stopping specialist and probably why we got him from ODU. Yes, he is like our #5 or #6 DT. Hopefully Artis is looking good, the guy is 320. I think he is next man up as the #5 or #6 guy. Captain obvious here but we absolutely cannot have any injuries to the 2 deep, Elies. Beamon, van den Berg or Durant.
I don’t know what happened , but that could be one of the possibilities. A couple of 280 pound tackles trying to beat a 350 pound guard ( speculation). The physics on that equation favors the guard. Maybe the guard can flip to “D”
