Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1486024
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 2 1 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M It's also worth noting that Allen and Singleton don't fit easily into the cat- egories to which their physiques suggest they belong. Listed at 6-0, 219 pounds on Penn State's most recent roster, Singleton is nearly 20 pounds heavier than Allen, yet he's the one who has shown flashes of breakaway speed, totaling six runs of 40 or more yards, along with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Rutgers. As for Allen, even at 201 pounds, he's been an effective between-the-tackles battering ram. That's the accurate part of the preseason assessment. Over the course of the regular season, he supplied Penn State with a show of force that it needed when third-year sophomore Keyvone Lee was forced to the sideline because of an undisclosed injury. Allen has been a pile-moving force who just keeps churning after first contact, and sometimes after second and third con- tact, too. Together, the two newcomers have given Penn State's offense a huge lift, and their impact has only grown more pronounced as the season has gone on. In Week 10 against Maryland, it was Single- ton who took the lead, accounting for 122 of Penn State's 249 rushing yards in a 30-0 victory. The following week at Rutgers, it was Allen's turn. He totaled 117 yards on just 11 carries, helping PSU rush for 237 yards in a 55-10 romp over the Scarlet Knights. "They're both getting better in areas that they need to improve, as you can imagine," Franklin said. "There's still a ton of growth for both of them based on the fact that they're true freshmen and haven't played a whole lot of football." Power Surge There is one other way in which the battle for carries between Penn State's two standout freshmen hasn't con- formed to the initial expectations: It ap- pears to have ended in a stalemate. As a five-star Pennsylvania prospect, Singleton was inevitably going to receive an outsized share of preseason hyper- bole. When speculation turned to his role in the offense as a true freshman,