Penn State Nittany Lions

Wooten set to replace injured PSU MLB against Buffalo

Published Sep. 8, 2015 6:35 p.m. ET

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After one game of the 2015 regular season, Penn State is already dealing with the loss of a returning starter from last year.

Nyeem Wartman-White is out for the season because of a knee injury, and fellow linebacker Jason Cabinda told the team's official website it will take a group effort to replace him.

“It’s not just going to be one guy," Cabinda said. "It’s going to be a lot of guys. Everyone now has to elevate their games. We lost a critical piece to our unit. Now everybody has to step up. Everybody has to play better. We can’t make mistakes. We have to play like veterans.”

Wartman-White was replacing standout Mike Hull in the middle of the Penn State defense, a job that now falls to junior Gary Wooten.

Wooten is listed as the new starter on the depth chart in the game notes published for Penn State's next game against Buffalo. He has 12 tackles last season in 10 games and three against Temple after Wartman-White went down.

Jake Cooper, a true freshman from Doylestown, Pa., is listed as Wooten's backup. Cooper made his college debut against the Owls but did not record a statistic.