Blue White Illustrated

| ith the possible exception of the two freshman running backs themselves, no one was more excited to see Keyvone Lee and Caziah Holmes emerge as play- makers for Penn State late last season than their position coach, Ja'Juan Seider. The Nittany Lions had gotten off to a brutal 0-5 start, and the backfield was emblematic of their struggles. Journey Brown had been ruled out of action in the preseason when he was diagnosed with what would turn out to be a career-ending heart ailment. Noah Cain had suffered a season- ending injury on opening day, and Devyn Ford was in and out of the lineup due to injury problems and a death in the family. In a matter of weeks, the depth chart had been hollowed out. One of the deepest parts of the team had been turned into one of the thinnest, with a pair of freshmen having to step into critical roles. For obvious reasons, that didn't sit well with the coaching staff. As Seider explained, "You always want to protect freshmen. They have a lot on their plate." Penn State couldn't afford to bring Lee and Holmes along slowly anymore, but just when it seemed that the team's struggles would extend into Decem- ber, the young kids experienced a growth spurt. When Penn State made a late-November visit to Michigan, a place where it hadn't won since 2009, the 238-pound Lee hammered the Wolverines for 134 yards and a touchdown, help- ing lift the Nittany Lions to a 27-17 victory. Three weeks later, in the season finale against Illinois, Lee finished with 85 yards and a touchdown, while Holmes added a season-high 77 yards and two TDs in a 56-21 romp over the Illini. To Seider, it was a gratifying end to a difficult year. He had been the lead recruiter for the two Florida prospects, and as a former college player himself, he understood the unique pressures they were under at Penn State. They had showed up on campus with big ambitions, but also with every reason to believe they would be given as much time as they needed to adapt to their new sur- roundings. That didn't happen, and when he looks back, Seider can't help but see the season from the perspective of the two true freshmen. "You weren't expecting to play, and all of a sud- den your number is called," he said. "Now you've got to not only play, but you've got to be the guy. I thought those kids down the stretch really did a great job of handling that." Their statistics – Lee rushed for a team-leading 438 yards, while Holmes added 227 – bear out Seider's assessment. But college football is a relentlessly for- ward-looking business, and the need for constant improvement has left the fourth-year Penn State assistant with a question for his young running backs as they look to follow up fresh- THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS W Ja'Juan Seider's running backs room is never without playmakers. Even after a season like 2020 in which nearly everything that could go wrong did go wrong, PSU's hopes are running high VETERAN COACH Seider is prepar- ing for his fourth season as the Nittany Lions' running backs coach. Photo by Mark Selders/ Penn State Ath- letics >>

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