Hours before Penn State coach James Franklin addressed reporters after practice, which he does every Wednesday during the season, news broke that one of his best defensive players, Abdul Carter, had be charged with a marijuana misdemeanor.
JUST IN | Penn State University police have charged Nittany Lions' star linebacker Abdul Carter with misdemeanor marijuana possession following an incident at a campus dormitory last month.https://t.co/rGeskBR420
— 6 News (@WJACTV) September 6, 2023
Unsurprisingly, Franklin was asked about the charge, and he didn’t say much about it.
What he did say was that the situation had been dealt with internally, and didn’t give any specifics as to what that meant.
“As you know, we don’t talk about those things publicly,” Franklin said. “Obviously it’s being handled, dealt with internally. This is new to you guys, its not new to us, as you can imagine.”
WJAC6 was first on this story.
Per the police report, Penn State police were sent to the Nittany Apartments for a fire alarm evacuation.
According to authorities, further investigation showed that what set of the fire alarm was Carter smoking marijuana in his dorm room.
Police also said that Carter admitted to using the drug and gave the bag of drugs to officers.
Online court records say that, as of Tuesday, Carter has been charged with one count of marijuana-small amount for personal use.
Carter is one of college football’s best linebackers. As a true freshman last season, it didn’t take long for Carter to become one of Penn State’s best defensive players. He was ejected on the first defensive play of his college career Week 1 at Purdue on a Thursday night.
But Carter quickly overcame that and showed the college football world what he is capable of doing on the field.
He finished the season with the team lead in sacks (6.5), tackles for loss (10.5) and finished second in solo tackles (36). He was one of four finalists for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award.
Penn State’s 1-0 on the season and looks to move to 2-0 Saturday afternoon against Delaware. Kickoff is scheduled for noon on Peacock, the first PSU game to be played on that platform.
