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Prosecutors: Holtslander’s confession is valid

<p>Two short sentences from a Penn State press release meant two more starters that will need to be replaced.</p><p>Forced to patch holes all season long, the Nittany Lions will have to do it again in Monday&#8217;s Rose Bowl. But this time, injuries aren&#8217;t the culprit.</p><p>The program announced Wednesday that wide receiver Saeed Blacknall and linebacker Manny Bowen have been suspended for the matchup with USC &#8220;due to violation of team rules.&#8221;</p><p>Both players made the trip to California with the team but will not play against the Trojans.</p><p>Blacknall, a junior, is coming off of a Big Ten championship record 155 yards and two touchdowns, but the Lions have solid depth at receiver.</p><p>The bigger issue will be replacing Bowen, a true sophomore was became a starter back in the second game because of injuries and has been one of the few linebackers who hasn&#8217;t been seriously hurt himself.</p><p>With game-week practices just getting underway, the leading candidate would appear to be Southern California native Koa Farmer.</p><p>A redshirt sophomore who has bounced back and forth between safety and linebacker, Farmer looks to be in line to start at Bowen&#8217;s strong-side position.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re used to (attrition at linebacker) right now, to be honest,&#8221; defensive coordinator Brent Pry said on the Rose Bowl&#8217;s live stream on Wednesday after practice. &#8220;I&#8217;m a Manny Bowen fan. He&#8217;s had a really good year for us. But we just keep rolling. It&#8217;s a rally cry for our group. There wasn&#8217;t any flinching in the room.</p><p>&#8220;Everyone&#8217;s excited for Koa. &#8230; He&#8217;s an endurance guy. He&#8217;s a warrior. He can play a lot of snaps. He&#8217;s in good shape &#8212; a great athlete.&#8221;</p><p>Pry also said there will be more opportunities for true freshman Cam Brown to play Monday and said it&#8217;s possible that senior Brandon Bell plays every snap, if he&#8217;s able to.</p><p>At receiver, Blacknall previously missed four games early in the season with a finger injury, so the Lions have dealt with his absence before.</p><p>During that stretch, it was DeAndre Thompkins who stepped up as a starter, providing a similar knack for hauling in deep passes. He would be a likely candidate to start vs. the Trojans with redshirt freshmen Irvin Charles and Juwan Johnson also in the mix for more reps.</p><p><strong>Cabinda will return</strong></p><p>The suspensions overshadowed some news about another linebacker, as Jason Cabinda announced earlier in the day that he would be returning for his senior season in 2017.</p><p>Cabinda posted a note on Twitter in the morning, hitting a lot of the same notes that tight end Mike Gesicki did a week ago when announcing his decision to stay at Penn State another year.</p><p>&#8220;After speaking to those closest to me who have my best interest at heart, I believe it would be best to completely focus on beating USC in the Rose Bowl,&#8221; Cabinda wrote.</p><p>It would have been a surprise had Cabinda elected to leave after just three years on campus.</p><p>Later in the day, he confirmed that he hadn&#8217;t put too much thought into the NFL this season.</p><p>&#8220;I was already pretty sure I was going to stay,&#8221; Cabinda said on the Rose Bowl&#8217;s live stream. &#8220;But I just wanted to wait till I felt 100 percent committed to that decision. And today, I felt it.&#8221;</p><p>Though Cabinda and Gesicki will be back in the fold, a handful of other prominent juniors will still have decisions to make after the bowl game, namely safety Marcus Allen, wideout Chris Godwin and defensive end Garrett Sickels.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Penn State receiver Saeed Blacknall had a career game in the Big Ten championship but will sit out the Rose Bowl along with Manny Bowen for a violation of team rules. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/web1_AP16339116411998-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Penn State receiver Saeed Blacknall had a career game in the Big Ten championship but will sit out the Rose Bowl along with Manny Bowen for a violation of team rules. </caption0><photoCredit0>Michael Conroy | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta></subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Derek Levarse</p><p>dlevarse@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>UP NEXT</strong></p><p>Penn State vs. USC</p><p>5 p.m., Monday, ESPN</p></factboxMeta></div>

Penn State suspends starters Blacknall, Bowen for Rose Bowl