Birchmeier and Cam Wallace have not played in 23....any reasons?

[PSU Soupy]

Of all of the incoming OL, I thought that Birchmeier was the closest in terms of playing.....yet he did not play even in Delaware Game.....any knowledge on this? Same with Cam Wallace....heard good things about him this summer, yet no carries even in blow outs...........

 

[lazydave841]

I believe it's a matter of Williams and Donkoh winning spots in the 2 deep. Neither of them are expected to burn their RS though, injuries withstanding.

Our RBs are probably in the same boat. You might see one of them get snaps vs UMass if Allen is limited. So far, the walk ons have been rewarded with the 4th and 5th spots in the RB rotation.

 

[BOSCO2]

My theory: We'll see Birchmeier later in the year so CJF can play him if needed and not have to burn his redshirt. Pure speculation on my part.

 

[GregInPitt]

I believe it's a matter of Williams and Donkoh winning spots in the 2 deep. Neither of them are expected to burn their RS though, injuries withstanding.

Our RBs are probably in the same boat. You might see one of them get snaps vs UMass if Allen is limited. So far, the walk ons have been rewarded with the 4th and 5th spots in the RB rotation.

Potts has earned more snaps at RB, and from what we saw last week that seems reasonable.

As you said, if Allen is not ready to play against UMass that may open the door for Cam Wallace to get a snap or two. Or it may open the door for Montgomery instead, if he is fully recovered from is ACL surgery and more ready to play than CW.

It seems that Birchmeir wasn't as ready to make the transition to B10 football as had been reported by the recruiting "experts" as Donkoh seems to have gotten ahead of him at Guard. It's also possible that the staff believed Birchmeir was more athletic and that his initial training at OT kept him from progressing as fast in mastering the inside spots (it was reported that both Williams and Birchmeir were starting their PSU careers practicing at OT). It would be great for Birchmeir if he can get on the field a couple of games, but there are still some Guards on the roster with experience (Achumba for example) so it doesn't seem as much of a priority to get multiple true freshman inside players ready as opposed to getting Williams ready at OT where the options seem much more limited if injuries arise. But I double we'll ever get the full story....

Going into the season I was expecting either King Mack or Cam Wallace to return kickoffs, freeing Singleton from that job. Now that it looks like Wallace will redshirt his absence from KO's makes sense. Still don't understand why King Mack hasn't gotten a try on the KO's though......