Who are the Penn State football freshmen green-lit for West Virginia week?

Penn State football will play more than just two freshmen in 2024. The ability to play anyone on the roster in up to four games during the regular season without burning a year of eligibility means that the Nittany Lions can get some newcomers game experience but not rely on them week in and week out. With that said, as the team prepares to head to West Virginia , it will take at least two Class of 2024 signees with it with plans to possibly play them in the season opener. They are offensive lineman Cooper Cousins and safety Dejuan Lane .

Cousins has impresed

Cousins has been one of the most talked about players since showing up on campus this winter and powering through workouts before showing strong promise in his first set of spring practices. He then took advantage of summer workouts and earned a role during preseason camp, partially because he is capable of playing both guard and center.

“I don’t like to talk in ways that’s going to create, you know, crazy expectations, but I could not be more impressed with him,” Franklin said. “Really, from the beginning, he was as low maintenance and highly-rated recruit I’ve ever been associated with. We offered him, they walked around the corner of the building and walked back and said, ‘we’re coming,.’ And it was over. And that was it. That was early. I think you guys remember, he committed, like, two years early. No issues, no wavering. Family is so appreciative. Awesome. Shows up on campus, he is competitive.

“A lot of guys say they want to play as true freshman, but they’re not willing to do necessarily what it takes. And the guy is either in class or in the building and asking a ton of questions. He’s super aggressive. He’s not intimidated, afraid of anybody. And then every night, I’ll come from watching film, and I’ll go to bathroom, it’s like 9:45 p.m., and I walk to my office, and he’s out there on the field every night at like 9:45 with headsets on doing pass sets. It’s kind of weird, to be honest with you [laughs]. But he is as driven and as committed as a young player as I’ve ever been around, and specifically on the O-line, because it’s hard to play those grown man positions, O-line and D-line, as a true freshman. But, he’s going to be hard to keep off the field.”

Lane makes a move

Lane came to Penn State with no guarantee that he would have a role in year one. But, he has quickly cemented himself as a special teams contributor and possibly the No. 4 safety in position coach Anthony Poindexter’s room. Lane was one of the takeaway kings of preseason camp and will be on all four special teams, in all likelihood, at the very least on Saturday.

Penn State green light situation is a ‘moving target’

That’s how Franklin described it. In the old days, green light players were certain to burn a year of eligibility. Yellow players might. And those in the redlight category would not. But, the four game rule changes that setup dramatically.

“What I would say is that’s kind of like a moving target,” Franklin said. “So I’m going to give you the green lights that we have for today, but there’s going to be guys after game one that become green lights based on how they play. Or, based on some bumps and bruises, or whatever it may be. We’re going to try to manage it and be as strategic as long as we can, so that we still have the flexibility as long as we can, but this will change throughout the year.

“Some of that is based on how they have conducted themselves, that we feel like they’re ready. And some of that also is the position. Like, there’s other guys that I think if we needed to, we could green light and go. But right now it’s, it’s those two guys, and it could be more.”

Penn State-West Virginia starts at Noon ET on Saturday. FOX will televise the contest.

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