Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1486024
2 2 D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M the questions weren't about whether he would become the undisputed leader of the backfield. That was a given. The questions were about how long it would take. The answer turned out to be three games. Singleton earned his first col- lege start at Auburn, and he took full ad- vantage of that opportunity by rushing for 124 yards and 2 touchdowns in Penn State's 41-12 win. But then Allen started coming on strong. After a four-game midseason stretch in which Singleton averaged 56.8 yards, Allen took over as the Nittany Li- ons' first-team running back in Week 8 against Ohio State and held the top spot the following week against Indiana. Allen's power was on full display against the Buckeyes. On fourth-and- goal early in the fourth quarter, he took a handoff at the 3-yard line, slipped out of linebacker Tommy Eichenberg's grasp in the backfield, kept his balance and pushed past four would-be Ohio State tacklers to reach the end zone for a touchdown that gave the Nittany Lions' a short-lived 21-16 lead. Allen finished the game with 76 yards on 11 carries to lead PSU. "Kaytron has the ability to set up blocks. He has tremendous vision. Like we saw [against Ohio State], he has the ability to finish runs with power," Frank- lin said. "He's just a very well-rounded running back. He's got a very high foot- ball IQ. "I think he and Nick are really good complementary pieces, much as we have seen around college football. … You want to rotate those guys as much as you can to keep them healthy. We have been for- tunate this year to pretty much every week have at least two backs that we feel really good about." During the regular season, the two freshmen were nearly even in carries, with Allen receiving 156 and Single- ton 149. Singleton, who returned to the starting lineup against Maryland and Rutgers, has a team-best 941 rushing Penn State has had more than its share of great run- ning backs over the years, but most of them have needed a one- or two-year apprenticeship before breaking out. The list of great freshman running backs is fairly short. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen have joined it this year, having combined for 1,771 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns heading into the Nittany Lions' bowl game. Below, ranked by their full-season yardage totals, are the top five performances by true freshman running backs at Penn State. 1. Saquon Barkley | 2015 Penn State was coming off two lackluster 7-6 seasons and needed something to feel good about, especially af- ter opening the 2015 season with a dreary 27-10 loss to Temple. Barkley supplied it. In a surprisingly close game against Buffalo in Week 2, he put a charge in the Nit- tany Lions' offense, rushing for 115 yards on 12 carries, including an electrifying 17-yard run in the fourth quarter on which he leaped over a Bulls safety. An early-season injury forced him to miss two games and slowed his ascent, but by Week 8 he was in the starting lineup, and he went on to rush for 1,076 yards and 7 touchdowns, setting a PSU freshman record in the former category that still stands. 2. D.J. Dozier | 1983 Dozier was one of the bright spots in an otherwise disappointing follow- up to Penn State's 1982 national championship. The Nittany Lions finished 8-4-1 in 1983, but they got 1,002 yards from the true freshman tailback from Virginia Beach, Va. He scored 7 touchdowns, setting a freshman record that wasn't equaled until Barkley came along in 2015 and wasn't surpassed until Noah Cain rushed for 8 scores in 2019. Dozier's performance seemed to foreshadow a brilliant career, and in many ways it did. He led Penn State in rushing for four consecutive years and was one of the heroes of the Lions' 1986 national championship season, scoring the decisive touchdown in their upset of No. 1 Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. But he never again topped 1,000 yards, either at Penn State or during his five seasons in the NFL after being chosen by Minnesota with the 14th overall pick in the 1987 draft. 3. Nicholas Singleton | 2022 If he didn't have everyone's attention after arriving at Penn State in January as a five-star prospect and the Gatorade National High School Player of the Year, Singleton certainly had it after totaling 5 carries of 40 yards or more in nonconference victories over Ohio and Auburn. He hit a midseason lull, but rebounded sharply against Maryland, with a 45-yard touchdown bolt on a fourth-and-1 play in the first quarter and fin- ishing with 122 yards rushing. Singleton heads into the Nittany Lions' bowl game with 941 yards and 10 touchdowns on 149 carries and is within reach of Barkley's freshman yardage record. 4. Kaytron Allen | 2022 James Franklin had been saying for months that the battle for carries between Penn State's two freshman running back signees was closer than a lot of people might have expected, given all the attention that greeted Singleton's arrival. That turned out to be entirely correct. While Singleton dazzled at times, Allen put together an impressive season of his own, earning starts against Ohio State and Indiana and finishing the regular season with 830 yards and 9 touchdowns on 156 carries. 5. Eric McCoo | 1998 McCoo was a much-hyped prospect after rushing for nearly 1,800 yards as a senior at Red Bank (N.J.) Regional High in 1997, but even so, he wasn't expect- ing to become the first true freshman since Dozier 15 years earlier to lead the Nittany Lions in rushing. That's just what he did, though, taking over in November after Cordell Mitchell suffered a shoulder injury. McCoo ended up leading the team with 822 rushing yards, including a 206-yard outburst against Michigan State. McCoo also paralleled Dozier in that his freshman season was his best. He gained 739 yards as a sophomore, 692 as a junior and 265 as a senior before heading off to the professional ranks. His career in the NFL was brief, consist- ing of short stints with Chicago and Philadelphia, but he did shine in NFL Eu- rope, earning MVP honors in World Bowl XII after rushing for 167 yards for the Berlin Thunder in its 30-24 victory over Frankfurt in 2004. — Matt Herb True Freshmen Have Shined In Penn State's Backfield Saquon Barkley showed his potential with a 115-yard rushing performance against Buffalo in the second week of Penn State's 2015 season. PHOTO BY STEVE MANUEL