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Friday, August 23, 2002

By Ray Fittipaldo, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Penn State was one day from making it through two-a-day workouts without a significant injury to a starter. Then Wednesday, the anterior cruciate ligament in junior safety Yaacov Yisrael's left knee was torn.

He will be lost for the season.

Yisrael, a 5-foot-11, 195-pound junior who started all 11 games last season, was injured in a noncontact pass skeleton drill. He was in line to be the starter again after working his way back into the good graces of Coach Joe Paterno, who had suspended Yisrael for a driving under the influence arrest in November.

Yisrael will have surgery within the next two weeks. Rehabilitation will take approximately nine months, according to Penn State team physician Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli.

"It's a blow," Paterno said. "That kind of set us back a bit. I was pulling for him because he was really a positive influence on the squad."

The injury means Penn State will open the season a week from tomorrow with an inexperienced player in the defensive backfield. Four players are in the mix to replace him -- sophomores Chris Harrell and Andrew Guman, redshirt freshman Paul Cronin and true freshman Calvin Lowry. Paterno did not rule out moving another player from another position to compete for the starting job.

Guman and Harrell were two of four true freshmen to play last season. Guman played 139 snaps, including a season-high 39 against Southern Mississippi. Harrell played in every game. Cronin won the starting position in spring drills.

The youngest player of the bunch might be the one to watch. Lowry, a 6-foot, 195-pounder from Fayetteville, N.C., received high marks from Paterno yesterday. Lowry enrolled at Penn State in January and participated in spring drills.

"He'll definitely be in it," Paterno said. "Lowry is a player. He'll be a really good football player."

Whoever wins the job will be the second first-year starter in the secondary. Junior walk-on Richard Gardner won the right cornerback job over redshirt freshman Gio Vendemia, who had been the starter coming out of spring.

The Lions went into camp with all three linebacker positions open, and Paterno said yesterday he is not ready to name starters. Sam Ruhe and Tim Johnson are competing to start in the middle, Derek Wake and Jimi Mitchell are battling for one outside spot, and Gino Capone, LaMar Stewart and Deryck Toles are splitting time at the other.

"There's a lot of people we're working with," Paterno said. "I really couldn't tell you which three are the best of the group. All three are tired. We just came off two-a-days. They're all dead tired and aching. In the next few days, we'll rest up, and then we'll have a better idea of who will play against Central Florida in the opener."

There was some shuffling of starting positions on the offensive line, but Paterno will open with all seniors across the front. Gus Felder (6-5, 321) will start at left tackle, Eric Rickenbach (6-5, 303) at left guard, Joe Iorio (6-3, 302) at center, Tyler Lenda (6-3, 289) at right guard and Matt Schmitt (6-4, 304) of Hampton at right tackle. Rickenbach is the only one who hasn't started at least one game for the Lions.

Junior Chris McKelvy (6-3, 325), who started the final nine games last season, has apparently lost his job to Schmitt. New Castle graduate Nick Marmo, a 6-5, 299-pound sophomore who was moved from guard to center at the end of spring drills, is the third-string center behind Iorio and junior David Costlow (6-2, 275).

Junior Casey Williams won the starting tight end job and will be backed up by junior walk-on Mike Lukac.

Other than Yisrael's injury, Paterno said it was an upbeat two weeks of camp. He said he felt more comfortable with this team and thought it was going into the season with a better "attitude" than last year's team that opened the season 0-4 and finished 5-6.

"We had some kids we could never quite fit into certain spots last season," Paterno said. "The seniors' whole attitude is a little more focused on the team. Our problems this season are different. We have senior guys who know what they have to do. Our problem is backup people across the board. Depth, depth, depth."

NOTES -- The only other significant injury in camp was a season-ending knee injury to third-string safety and long snapper Ben Lago. ... Stephanie Weimer, the female kicker from Serra Catholic, will receive her tryout with other students Wednesday. ... Quarterback Zack Mills had a minor ankle injury in camp and was held out of a few practices in a precautionary measure. ... OLB LaMar Stewart is one of 67 players on a preseason watch list for the Butkus Award, presented annually to the nation's top linebacker.

Ray Fittipaldo can be reached at rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1230.