Report: Journey Brown could be out for season
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State will likely be without star running back Journey Brown for the 2020 football season.
The redshirt junior could sit out because of a health condition, 247Sports first reported. A source told the Centre Daily Times it’s unlikely Brown will play this season.
“Journey Brown is being treated for a medical condition discovered during the offseason and will potentially miss the 2020 football season,” a Penn State spokesperson later confirmed.
Asked to discuss Brown’s situation on
Tuesday, head coach James Franklin, on his weekly teleconference didn’t say whenBrownmight be able to return . He instead stated that it’s “still to be determined.”
“First of all, wewant to focus all of our energy and love and support on Journey through this,” Franklin said. “I’m not going to get into a whole lot, but I didn’t want to just move on to the other guys without talking about how proud [we are] and howmuchwe love and support and appreciate Journey and how much he’s grown in our program. [
“We] think he has a very, very bright future.”
Brown was projected to lead the Penn State backfield after breaking out to close out the 2019 season. The junior ended the season with 16 carries for
202 yards and two touchdowns in the team’s 53-39 Cotton Bowl win over Memphis in December.
He finished with 890 yards and 12 touchdowns on only 129 carries and started to receive plenty of draft hype in the offseason.
Dane Brugler of The Athletic ranked Brown as his No. 1 running back in the 2021 draft class heading into this season.
Brown’s absence leaves Penn State with little time to figure out its running back rotation. The Nittany Lions kick off against Indiana on Saturday and could use a rotation similar to the one used by last year’s team.
Last season, Brown split the workload with Noah Cain and occasionally Devyn Ford and Ricky Slade before the then-redshirt sophomore took control of the lead back duties.
Nowthat Brown is unlikely to play, Cain and Ford should see a lion’s share of the work, with true freshmen Caziah Holmes and Keyvone Lee picking up the rest of the slack.
“We got a number of guys there, whether you’re talking about Devyn or whether you’re talking about Noah Cain, [who] did so many significant things for us last year, “Franklin said. “So [we have] those two guys with tremendous experience and two guys that we’re really excited about behind those guys with Caziah and Keyvone. We feel like we got a really good group there.
“Obviously, Caziah and Keyvone haven’t done it in a collegiate setting yet, but we do feel Noah has the ability to carry the load and feel like Devyn has a chance to do that as well.
“We’ll see how close those two young guys are based on how they prepare this week, but you’d love to get them in the game. We’d love to get them in the game and see how they do in that setting.”
All four of the backs who are expected to be available on game day were four-star recruits.
Cain rushed for 433 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019 while Ford had 294 yards and three touchdowns.