Blue White Illustrated

d nauseam. Those are the words that James Franklin used to describe the amount of discussion surrounding Penn State's decision to rotate its run- ning backs in an e9ort to create a four- headed back8eld monster. The validity of such an idea seemed questionable for a team with New Year's Six aspirations. Could the Nittany Lions possibly cycle through personnel at a position that has been crucial to the pro- gram's success over the past four years, and do it in such a way that it actually helped the team? Or, perhaps more important, should they? Through the 8rst 8ve games of the sea- son, the play of the running backs spoke for itself. On 144 combined carries from Noah Cain, Devyn Ford, Journey Brown and Ricky Slade, the Nittany Lions rushed for 6.7 yards per carry and 14 touchdowns, averaging 154 yards per contest. In other words, plenty of pro- duction was spread out among the four- some, albeit largely against some of the lesser opponents on this year's schedule. Maybe four backs was the way to go a;er all. Then the fourth quarter of Penn State's most di:cult test of the season's 8rst half rolled around, and under the bright lights of Kinnick Stadium, it was Cain who shined against No. 17 Iowa. To that point, the equitable carry dis- tribution had continued in full force. Brown, Slade and Ford all toted the ball four times through the 8rst three quar- ters and put up lackluster numbers. Cain found the most success of the bunch, picking up 35 yards on seven carries, but Penn State's o9ense struggled to break through against a stout Iowa defense. But on the 8rst Penn State possession of the 8nal stanza, the Noah Cain show started. On the drive's 8rst snap from the shadow of their own end zone, the Nit- tany Lions handed the ball to their true freshman back, and he promptly re- warded them with 12 yards toward the right sideline and a 8rst down. Then 4 more yards up the middle, another 5 a couple plays later, and then a couple more carries that produced 10 yards and a 8rst down into Iowa territory. Cain wasn't given the ball on any of the next three plays, and the drive stalled. But he had done his job; in a grind-it-out kind of game, and with Penn State nurs- ing a four-point lead and reliant on its defense, winning the 8eld position game was nearly as valuable as scoring. In that fourth quarter, Cain would be the only running back to touch the ball. And on the following Penn State drive, he went on to carry the ball on 8ve of eight plays and eventually punch it in, ulti- mately sealing the Nittany Lions' victory. Of course, at his weekly news confer- ence a few days later, Franklin shook o9 the decision to rely on Cain as nothing more than a game-speci8c situation. "We've got four running backs who we really like who all get along extremely well, and coach Ja'Juan Seider has done a really good job of that," Franklin said. "There's going to be a week where I come in here and you guys are talking about Devyn Ford being the next great running back at Penn State. There's going to be a week I come in and it's going to be Jour- ney Brown. There's going to be a week that it's Noah Cain, and there's going to be a week that – yeah, Ricky Slade." THE CLOSER True freshman RB Noah Cain has a talent for getting the tough yards that help decide close games JUDGMENT CALL lost a regular-season game since 2016, Pickett's 372-yard outburst in Beaver Stadium doesn't look quite so unsightly. Iowa got a big play, too, as Brandon Smith had a 33-yard touch- down catch to make the final mo- ments of the Lions' visit to Kinnick Stadium a lot more tense than they might otherwise have been. But Reid was in good position to defend the pass; Smith just made a great play on the ball. For the most part, the sec- ondary has been solid. GRADE B SPECIAL TEAMS IN THE SPOTLIGHT Jordan Stout has been everything the Nittany Lions had hoped he would be. Not only has he transformed kickoffs from a liabil- ity into a strength, he's hit two field goals of more than 50 yards, including a school-record 57-yarder vs. Pitt. KEY STAT Thirty-six of Stout's 44 kickoffs through six games were touchbacks. FRANKLIN SAYS "I remember on the headset, coaches were talking about [Dan] Chisena being tired because he was on four special teams units [against Idaho]. I said, 'What about Stout's leg?' He had a really good game for us." COMMENT Joe Lorig's tenure as spe- cial teams coordinator is off to a pretty good start. As noted above, Stout's kickoffs have been excellent, and he and Jake Pinegar combined to go 7 for 9 on field goal attempts through six games. Moreover, Blake Gillikin had a couple of outstanding days vs. Pitt and Iowa. He pinned the Panthers inside their 20-yard line on six of his seven attempts and then did the same to the Hawkeyes five times on seven punts. The Lions hadn't made any decisive plays in the return game through six games; in fact, they ranked last in the Big Ten with a 14.9- yard average on kickoff returns and 10th with a 7.0-yard average on punt returns. But with Hamler back deep on both, it might only be a matter of time. GRADE B A

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