Blue White Illustrated

LAST WORD N A T E B A U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M smile flashed across Miles Sanders' face before I even finished the question. Sitting at the podium of the Beaver Stadium media room surrounded by re- porters, the Nittany Lions' junior run- ning back had just tallied 86 yards rushing on 14 carries against Kent State. The performance boosted his season totals to 295 yards on 49 carries with a pair of touchdown runs as his team improved to 3-0 on the season with a 63-10 victory over the Golden Flashes. The manner in which Sanders had piled up those yards was what most stood out, though. The former Rivals.com No. 1 all-pur- pose back in the Class of 2016, the one who had arrived at Penn State at 5-foot- 11, 200 pounds, was running through, past and over his defensive opponents. Not unlike his former running mate, No. 2 overall NFL Draft pick Saquon Barkley, Sanders was effectively proving himself as a more-than-capable between-the- tackles stud. Taking note of his penchant for push- ing past the first tackler, Sanders ac- knowledged the increasingly important element of his game. "It's just having that mindset of just not being tackled by the first defender," he said. "It creates more yards and cre- ates better opportunities for our of- fense. I'm just trying to get as many yards as I can every time I touch the ball." Sanders, having admittedly grown tired of the frequent comparisons to and questions about Barkley leading up to the 2018 season, didn't hesitate to credit the former Nittany Lion for helping in- still that mentality. During a career that overlapped with a period of instability on Penn State's of- fensive line, Barkley routinely had to make defenders miss in his own back- field or break through an initial touch in order to produce positive yards. Ab- sorbing that influence, Sanders ap- proached the possibility with the same resolution. "Just watching Saquon, what he does best is break tackles," Sanders said. "Watching him now in the league, some people can't make the runs that he makes. Being that tough running back is just breaking tackles and getting as many yards as I can." Actually, Sanders might be even bet- ter. According to the advanced statistics compiled by Pro Football Focus, through the first three weeks of the 2018 season, Sanders was leading the nation in yards after contact per attempt. For tailbacks with a minimum of 40 carries to that point in the season, Sanders' average of 4.58 yards after contact per attempt topped all Football Bowl Subdivision tailbacks. He was faring better than Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor (3.94), Ohio State's J.K. Dobbins (3.11) and Pitt's Qadree Ollison (2.84), among oth- ers. Constantly falling forward to pick up extra yards, even as he's being tackled, Sanders has a running style that is geared toward consistently picking up yards beyond his first obstacle, contact or not. His after-contact average through three games was better than Barkley's 3.45-yard average in 2017. In fact, in what was likely as much a commentary on the improved play of Penn State's offensive line through the nonconference portion of the schedule, Sanders also rarely found himself being dropped behind the line of scrimmage. Of his 49 carries, only eight went for negative yardage, and those losses amounted to only 20 yards. "Miles has done an unbelievable job this year," junior left tackle Ryan Bates said. "We expect a lot from him. When I say 'we,' I mean the offensive line. We work our butts off up front just for that dude back there – all the running backs, not just him, [but] we have high expec- tations for him. He sat behind Saquon for a year or so, and all you heard about was Saquon, but he is his own back and his own person. He is going to play how Miles plays." Now a leader of Penn State's running back room, Sanders is having an influ- ence on the rest of a group. Whether it's true freshman Ricky Slade, senior Johnathan Thomas, redshirt freshman Journey Brown or fifth-year senior Mark Allen, the whole collection of Nit- tany Lion running backs share Sanders' determination to power past the first man. So much so, in fact, that Sanders isn't the only one smiling over it. Even before the start of the season, new Penn State offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne understood his top tailback to be fully capable of filling that role, one broken tackle and missed man at a time. "Miles is a big guy with great speed," Rahne said. "He's got almost the same size that Saquon has. He's gotten a lot bigger, a lot more physical. He has very, very good vision, especially in between the tackles. But he has the speed to play on the perimeter and make plays out there. His ability to break tackles and have great balance on contact... is going to be a huge asset." So far, it has been. ■ Dividend Miles A

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