Pelini: Reed injury won’t change YSU’s plan

July 13, 2018 at 12:07a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Youngstown State defensive end Justus Reed is expected to redshirt this year and be available for the 2019 football season, head coach Bo Pelini said on Thursday.

Reed is out for the season after tearing his Achilles’ tendon in a summer workout.

“It’s a bummer for him,” Pelini said. “It was a weird injury. He got it while warming up.”

Pelini said the injury occurred “a few weeks” before the news of it broke this week. Reed has already had surgery.

“It doesn’t change what we do,” Pelini said of his defense sans-Reed. “We’ve got some good players — young kids — that can help us absorb a big loss.”

Pelini mentioned senior Johnson Louigene, juniors Shereiff Bynum and Ma’lik Richmond and redshirt freshman Antoine Cook as the rotation at defensive end. Senior linebacker Tyler Sims will also play at DE for depth.

Sims, who played defensive end in high school at Richland Northeast in Columbia, S.C., appeared in two games last season.