Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
pending on whether Lee redshirts, there
will be either four or ;ve players vying
for carries, and the sta< will have to
manage the desire of all of its running
backs to get the football in their hands.
Three can be kept relatively happy. Four
will be harder to pull o<. Five will re-
quire some next-level game manage-
ment skills. With so much talent at the
sta<'s disposal, it's possible that a de-
serving player will be le= out of the mix
entirely. It's also possible that the work-
load will be partitioned into so many
segments that no one comes away feel-
ing satis;ed.
For his part, Franklin is taking a posi-
tive approach to the situation as the sea-
son nears. "I think it's really the model
for what we want at every position
throughout our program," he said.
"Those guys really work well together.
Ja'Juan [Seider] has done a really good
job with the entire group. They support
each other, they're friends with each
other, they mentor each other, but
they're also competing with each other.
We have three for sure that we feel good
about and wouldn't be surprised if we
have ;ve that we feel good about."
The sta<'s con;dence in Brown ap-
pears to be entirely justi;ed. Considered
a co-starter with Slade to open the 2019
season, he earned his ;rst start against
Pitt and topped the century mark on just
10 carries. Although Cain would ulti-
mately work his way to the top of the
depth chart at Michigan State in Octo-
ber, Brown regained his status as the
;rst back on the ;eld in the ;nal four
regular-season games and the bowl. He
didn't disappoint.
Beginning with his 124 yards and two
touchdowns on 14 carries at Minnesota,
including three explosive plays, Brown
turned in a string of eye-opening per-
formances. In Penn State's last ;ve
games, he totaled 593 yards and nine
touchdowns on 78 carries, an average of
7.6 yards per carry. According to Pro
Football Focus, he was the seventh-best
running back in the Power Five during
that stretch, grading out at 82.7 behind
LSU's Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Utah's
Zack Moss, Minnesota's Mohamed
Ibrahim, Kentucky's Christopher Ro-
driguez, Wisconsin's Jonathan Taylor
and Louisville's Javian Hawkins. Maybe
more exciting for Penn State was
Brown's breakaway percentage, with
63.9 percent of his yards coming on 12
carries of 15 or more yards.
Because of the timing of Brown's
breakout, it might be easy to forget that
Cain was excellent when healthy, set-
ting a team record for freshmen with
eight rushing touchdowns. He was on
the ;eld for only a handful of plays in
the ;nal four regular-season games, but
he returned for the Cotton Bowl and
rushed for 92 yards and two TDs on 15
carries.
"He never lacks con;dence," Seider
said. "It was [a matter of] him just get-
ting healthy, being the guy who we saw
early in the year. You get those nicks and
muscles, and sometimes they take a long
time to heal. It's just a process, especially
with a kid who's as powerful as he is and
runs the way he does. He just took time
to get healed. … I think [he and Brown]
are going to do a great job moving for-
ward, and don't count out Devyn Ford."
We de;nitely aren't going to count out
Ford. Now listed at 192 pounds, the soph-
omore hasn't gone anywhere and is very
much set on being a big part of the equa-
tion at running back in 2020. Seider sees
that as a strong possibility, noting that
winter workouts helped Ford get bigger
and stronger.
"He's one of those physically gi=ed
kids," Seider said. "I think you're going
to see a whole other level of Devyn going
forward. I think he's a kid who probably,
like all freshmen, was enjoying college a
little bit too much. Not saying he was
partying, but [he wasn't used to] that
much freedom. ... I think he had a great
winter conditioning. I'm really excited
about him. I view all three of those guys
in my mind as starters right now."
As for Holmes, he "got over the home-
sickness" during his ;rst winter on cam-
pus, Seider said. His ;rst semester got cut
short when the campus was shut down in
March, but Seider was impressed with
the improvement that Holmes showed
throughout winter workouts.
With an abundance of elite players on
hand, Penn State's back;eld will carry
heightened expectations into the season.
Seider said he believes that the group is
capable of living up to those high hopes,
especially if everyone fully commits to
the idea that continued improvement is
not only possible but necessary.
"They've all got the mentality that
we've got to do better than we did last
year," he said. "So how do we get better?
We've talked about pushing each other
physically, mentally. Learn how to prepare
di