Penn State defensive lineman PJ Mustipher out for the season, James Franklin says

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State head coach James Franklin announced on Wednesday that starting defensive tackle PJ Mustipher will be out for the remainder of the season.

Mustipher suffered a lower body injury in the first quarter of the 23-20 loss against Iowa on Saturday. Following halftime, Mustipher returned to the sideline on crutches. He was one of several Penn State players who went down during the course of the game, including Jonathan Sutherland, Arnold Ebiketie, Dvon Ellies, Jaquan Brisker and quarterback Sean Clifford.

“PJ is out for the year,” Franklin told members of the media Wednesday. “As you know, that’s the one time that I’ll answer when you ask specifically about a guy. I talked to PJ ahead of time — I never want to make an announcement like that without talking to a player first. I think that’s the right thing to do, but PJ will be out for the year — for the season. I thought the guys that went in behind did some good things. Obviously, PJ we think is an elite-level player. So they’ve still got work to do, but I thought that overall, those guys did some pretty good things.”

Starting #PennState DT PJ Mustipher is out for the year, per James Franklin. pic.twitter.com/UdBnmQhYgT

— Kyle J. Andrews (@KyleJAndrews_) October 13, 2021

The senior defensive tackle has participated in 40 games while at Penn State, totaling 107 total tackles (10 for loss), three sacks a pass deflection and two forced fumbles. This season and the year prior, Mustipher manned the starting roll for the entirety of the Nittany Lions’ contests.

Ellies and Coziah Izzard filled in for Mustipher during his absence in the Iowa game with Ellies making a tackle. The duo of defensive tackles will have large shoes to fill ahead of Penn State’s second half of the season.

Remember PSU's projected starting D-line in the spring? That was: DE Adisa Isaac (season-ending injury), DT PJ Mustipher (now done for the season due to injury), DT Hakeem Beamon (unavailable for the season), DE Arnold Ebiketie OR DE Nick Tarburton (better bubble wrap them)

— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) October 14, 2021

When it came to Clifford’s status, Franklin did not go into detail about the possibility of the quarterback suiting up against Illinois next Saturday, citing the team’s policy on discussing injuries.

Backup quarterback Ta’Quan Roberson and third-stringer Christian Veilleux are both in splitting reps in practice this week, the coach said.