Blue White Illustrated

P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> enn State had just beaten Appalachian State in an overtime thriller on opening day, and in the euphoric aftermath of the come-from-behind victory, the player who supplied the Nittany Lions with the winning points – junior running back Miles Sanders – found himself standing next to James Franklin. Sanders is not a man given to bursts of euphoria; he's one of the more laid- back Nittany Lions, at least in his interactions with the media. But as he took it all in, the cheers still re- verberating around Beaver Stadium, he couldn't help but revel in the moment. "I've waited two years for this," he told his coach. Two long, quiet years. The Nittany Lions' staff had described Sanders as a difference-maker when they signed him in February 2016. Assistant coach Terry Smith called the Pittsburgh prospect "the No. 1 running back in the nation," and a number of recruiting services concurred with Smith's assessment, as did quite a few rival schools, some of which tried to talk him out of his verbal commitment to the Lions. Franklin described Sanders' recruitment as "nasty" at times, mostly be- cause the stakes were so high. This was a kid who could seemingly alter a program's trajectory. Sanders held firm to the commitment he had given Franklin a year earlier, but when he got to Penn State after rushing for 4,573 yards and 59 touchdowns at Woodland Hills High, he found that the biggest im- pediment to his continued ascent was not those rival schools, but rather the composition of the Nittany Lions' depth chart. He may have been the No. 1 run- ning back in his recruiting class, but he was the No. 2 running back on the Nittany Lions' roster, and that firmly established pecking order remained in place until this past January when Saquon Barkley an- nounced that he was leaving early to enter the NFL Draft. Barkley's exit changed everything. And while it might have seemed that the loss of such an incandes- cent talent would change things for the worse, Penn State's running game has actually been significantly better this year than it was in 2016 or '17. Through the first half of their season, the Nittany Lions were sec- ond in the Big Ten with an average of 251.8 rushing yards per game. Much of that progress is a testament to the ongoing development of Penn State's offensive line, which is deeper and more experienced than at any point in Franklin's tenure. It's also a testament to Trace McSor- ley, one of those rare dual-threat quarterbacks who is equally dangerous whether he's running or throwing; Ohio State found that out last month when McSorley rushed for 175 yards, the most by a Penn State quarter- back since Eugene "Shorty" Miller ran for 250 in a game against Carnegie Tech in 1913. Through six games, Mc- Sorley was the Big Ten's eighth-leading rusher at 74.5 yards per game, the only quarterback in the top 10. But the focal point of Penn State's re- vived running game this season has been Sanders. The Appalachian State game, in which he rushed for 91 yards, including all 25 yards in overtime, was the start of a big junior season for the 5-foot-11, 215-pound GAINING GROUND Sanders has been one of the Big Ten's top running backs so far this season, averaging 116.7 yards per game. Photo by Steve Manuel P IN THE LONG RUN C O V E R S T O R Y With Miles Sanders and Trace McSorley leading the way, the Lions have developed a more-productive ground game |

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