By Neil Rudel

nrudel@altoonamirror.com

FORT LAUDERDALE — With the status of Penn State defensive end Abdul Carter in question for Thursday night’s College Football Playoff semifinal between the Nittany Lions and Notre Dame, PSU defensive coordinator Tom Allen continues to get backups ready to play.

“We’ve got a lot of older and younger guys, and if they’re called upon, they’ll be ready,” he said Tuesday.

Carter suffered an arm/shoulder injury against Boise State in a CFP quarterfinal game last week and is “doing everything he can do” to play, Allen said.

But he singled out Amin Vanover’s performance vs. Boise, which included two tackles for loss in case Carter can’t go or is limited.

Allen called it Vanover’s “best game since I’ve been here.”

He also mentioned true freshman Max Granville as a candidate for a larger role.

On mission

Kaytron Allen is on the best three-game run of his career, having racked up 278 yards on 42 carries (6.6 average) against Oregon, SMU and Boise.

Offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said, “I’m super proud of him. Kaytron in December has run like a wildman.”

Another Arrington

Penn State is allowing its newly-enrolled freshmen to practice with the team for the first time.

Previously, that wasn’t the case at bowl games.

One of them happens to be LaVar Arrington II, son of the former Lion legend.

Allen called Arrington “a very athletic, raw athlete with a high ceiling.”

Yurcich on move

Former Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich has been hired to be OC at Youngstown State, according to published reports.

Yurcich coached the Lions from 2021-23 and was fired with three games left in the ’23 season. He was eventually replaced by Kotelnicki.

Before coming to Penn State, Yurcich was the OC and quarterbacks coach at Texas in 2020. He was also passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Ohio State in 2019 and the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State from 2013 to 2018. Yurcich previously had stints at Shippensburg, Edinboro and IUP.