Penn State fans who were in their seats by the time the starting lineups for Saturday’s game against Kent State were announced may have been suprised not to hear A.J. Harris’ name called.
The corner who transferred from Georgia over the winter had been one of Penn State’s best defensive players through two games.
Per Pro Football Focus, Harris has been Penn State’s second-best defensive player through two games with a 76.1 grade.
So why was second-year player Elliot Washington, and not Harris, starting for Penn State Saturday?
James Franklin answered that question at his weekly presser Monday, saying that part of it was due to Washington’s progress, part of it due to Harris being ill.
“Elliot has just been playing really well and practicing really well and earned the opportunity to get more playing time,” Franklin said. “That’s one thing. And I don’t want this to come off the wrong way in terms of Elliot earned that opportunity, but also A.J. had a little bit of a stomach virus on, I think Thursday and Friday, which was also affecting him, and we were concerned about that. He missed a little bit of practice time, wasn’t able to eat really the day before and even the morning of.”
Franklin feels that, once Harris came into the game, he played well in the 56-0 win.
”Typically with those type of flus, once you’re able to get some medicine in him, within 24 hours they’re usually feeling better,” Franklin said. “Again, I don’t want that to come off the wrong way because Elliot earned the opportunity by the way he’s been playing, but that also was a factor with A.J.”
Franklin also hinted that fellow CB Jalen Kimber wasn’t 100%, either.
“We feel that not only those three guys, Zion [Tracy] is playing really well right now,” Franklin said. “Cam Miller is playing really well.”
Overall, Franklin likes how Penn State’s CB’s are performing.
“I think you guys know we feel like we’ve got a lot of depth at that corner position,” he said, “which is also part of the way we’re solving some of our depth issues at other positions is some of those corners being able to play the nickel position, play some of the safety positions, doing some of those things has also helped because we do feel like we’ve got so much depth and talent at that position right now.”
