Penn State redshirt report: Jameial Lyons burns redshirt, Tony Rojas has big game at Maryland
Penn State won its eighth game of the year on Saturday when it took out Maryland 51-15 at SECU Stadium. Numerous Nittany Lions contributed to the victory. Some of them were first-year freshmen. And, one of them went over the eligibility-saving threshold during the triumph in College Park.
“I want to make sure the things I can control; I can’t control the press conference, I can’t control outside of the press conference,” Lions coach James Franklin said. “But I can control Lasch Building. And, I want people feeling good after wins. That doesn’t mean we don’t have things to correct and learn from and get better.
“But I want to feel good for wins. Because, they’re hard to get. And there’s examples that you guys could use as well, every week of people that don’t win the way they’re supposed to win, or don’t win at all. So that’s what I’d like to do.”
Here is this week’s redshirt report.
Penn State redshirt report after Week 10
Let’s start with Jameial Lyons. The first-year defensive end and former four-star recruit from Philadelphia played in his fifth game of the season on Saturday. That means he has used a year of eligibility. It’s long been expected to be the case. But, now it is confirmed. Over 20 snaps on defense, he recorded a tackle. He adds depth to the Penn State defensive line that has been without star starting end Chop Robinson for the last two weeks.
“Not having one of our most explosive players on defense and still being able to play the way we did tonight, those extra reps for Jameial Lyons were huge. And we wanted to play well, not only for Penn State, but also for Chop. We wanted him to understand that we were playing well for him.”
First-year Nittany Lion linebacker Tony Rojas was the star of his class on Saturday. He recorded his first career interception. He also had a sack and a forced fumble across seven snaps. Cornerback Zion Tracy and safety King Mack played five and three snaps, respectively, with no counting snaps. All three of the players listed here also played special teams. And, cornerback Elliot Washington III missed his second straight game after playing in the first seven.
Tracking the Nittany Lions’ redshirt plan
Thanks to an NCAA rule change, players can now suit up in four regular season games and an unlimited number of postseason games while still preserving a year of eligibility. So, Penn State would need to use a freshman in five of 12 regular season games to burn his redshirt this fall.
Here’s where the Penn State tracker stands after Week 10:
Nine games
LB Tony Rojas
CB Zion Tracy
S King Mack
Seven games
CB Elliot Washington II
Five games
DE Jameial Lyons
Two games
OT J’ven Williams
OT Anthony Donkoh
TE Andrew Rappleyea
OL Chimdy Onoh
LB Ta’Mere Robinson
LB Kaveion Keys
One game
QB Jaxon Smolik
DT Tyriq Blanding
CB Lamont Payne
S DaKaari Nelson
Zero games
RB London Montgomery
RB Cam Wallace
WR Carmelo Taylor
TE Joey Schlaffer
OL Alex Birchmeier
DE Joseph Mupoyi
DE Mason Robinson
