Ft. Lauderdale, Florida— Penn State coach James Franklin is expecting his best defensive player, Abdul Carter to be ready to go Thursday night in Miami.
Franklin told reports at a joint-press conference with Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman that, although Carter is still a Gametime decision, the expectation is that he will indeed play in the Orange Bowl/College Football Playoff Semifinal.
Carter suffered an apparent upper-body injury in last week’s Fiesta Bowl win over Boise State.
Since then, one of the biggest storylines has been whether Carter would or wouldn’t be good to go against the Fighting Irish. Franklin, who, like many coaches, is generally tight-lipped when it comes to injuries, came as close as possible to confirming that Carter will be out there Thursday without saying “yeah, dude, he’s gonna play.”
THIS IS A BIG DEAL
Photo by Matt Lynch, Nittany Sports Now
To paraphrase Ron Burgundy, Abdul Carter being an apparent go for Thursday is “kind of a big deal.”
Carter is a guy Penn State can’t afford to lose. He became the first Penn State player in almost a decade to reach double-digit sacks (he has 11) and leads in the nation in tackles for loss (22), doing all of it in his first season as a defensive end.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.Earlier this month ahead of PSU’s first playoff game against SMU, Mustangs’ coach Rhett Lashlee said he was impressed with multiple of Carter’s teammates but agrees with everybody else that Penn State’s latest No. 11 is cut from a different cloth.
“The other couple of ends (Dani Dennis-Sutton and Amin Vanover) are really special. If they didn’t have Abdul, we’d be worried about them. We are worried about them. But Abdul is so dominant,” Lashlee said.“He’s physical, he flies around and makes plays, and then they move him to defensive end this year, and he’s got as good a get-off as anybody in college football. There’sa reason he’s a top-five, top-10 pick in the upcoming draft. And on top of it, our tackles have to deal with the noise of trying to hear the snap count, and so there’s a lot of things in his favor that he doesn’t need, on top of the fact that he’s just probably as talented a pass rusher as there is.
“But that’s not all he is. He’s an all-around player, and what really stands out to me is his motor. He plays the game the right way. You got a lot of respect for how hard he plays. He’ll chase down plays from the backside. So just like we got issues with Tyler Warren and a lot of other guys on their offense, we’vegot some we got our work cut out for us on their defensive front and really their overall team speed on defense.”
ON THE OTHER SIDE
NEW ORLEANS, LA – JANUARY 02: Running Back Jeremiyah Love #4 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish rushes the ball during the Notre Dame Fighting Irish versus Georgia Bulldogs College Football Playoff Quarterfinal at the Allstate Sugar Bowl on January 2, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, LA. (Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire)
On the Notre Dame side, Freeman said that star RB Jeremiyah Love (1,076 yards, 16 TD, 7.3 YPC), “had a good week of practice,” amid an apparent knee injury.
Injuries: Will Notre Dame’s Best Offensive Player be a Full-Go Against Penn State?
“We have to be smart about how much we’re asking him to do in practice…..No one is 100-percent right now,” Franklin said. “He’ll be good to go.”
No. 6 Penn State plays No. 7 Notre Dame at 7:30 Jan. 9 in the Orange Bowl for a trip to the national title.
