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been as big a change as the ocial roster might indicate. He was a very eective power runner last year, capable of gain- ing yards just by dragging tacklers for- ward aer contact, and there's no reason to think he won't be at least as eective this season, having built even more lean muscle mass aer a year in the PSU weight program. Ford and Holmes also got more carries last year than they would have received had everything played out as expected. Ford missed three games, including the last two with an unspeci&ed injury, but he still &nished third on the team with 274 yards. And Holmes came on strong at the end, totaling a season-high 77 yards and scoring two touchdowns in the &nale against Illinois. Despite losing Brown and Cain, Penn State still &nished the 2020 season ranked in the top half of the Big Ten in rushing, coming in &h with an average of 174.3 yards per game. So the returning talent is formidable, and with four former Rivals.com four-star prospects in the mix, Seider said he could see any of his players coming away with the starting job. "This thing is wide open," he said. "Who's going to compete? Are we going to take a back seat once Noah comes, or are we going to push Noah for the job? That's been the mentality." If there are questions here, they have to do with Cain and Lovett. Cain didn't take part in contact drills as he worked his way back from the foot/ankle injury that forced him out last year. Is he healthy? Will he be able to stay healthy? In addi- tion to sitting out last year, he was side- lined by an ankle injury as a freshman, so he needs to show this season that he's got the durability to be the kind of impact player Penn State wants him to be. Lovett is a wild card. He's coming o the least-productive season of his career, but the 6-0, 210-pounder showed his potential in 2018 and '19, averaging 5.8 yards per carry during that 26-game span. What makes him especially inter- esting is that he displayed a big-play ca- pability at Baylor. As a freshman, his longest carry was 74 yards. As a sopho- more, he had a 75-yarder, and his longest carry as a junior covered 46 yards. By contrast, Penn State's longest carry from scrimmage last season was a 36-yard gain by Holmes. If Lovett can give the Lions a home run threat out of the back&eld, he'll be a very signi&cant addition. –M.H. a freshman. Also, after running a 4.6- second 40-yard dash last year, he said his fastest time this past spring was a 4.49. Seider attributed those improvements to Lee's performance in Penn State's off- season program. "He's got more lean mass on him because of the weightlifting, the winter conditioning," Seider said. Aside from the physical development, Lee said his top priority this off-season has been to improve as a blocker. When he works out on his own, the first thing he does is hit the blocking sled. While Lee may have led the team in rushing last year, the Nittany Lions also return their second-leading rusher from the 2019 season in Cain, as well as Ford and Holmes, the latter having come on strong late last year with 77 yards and two touchdowns in the season finale against Illinois. The Lions also have an intriguing newcomer in John Lovett, a Baylor trans- fer who has more career rushing yards (1,803) than the other four scholarship running backs put together (1,689). Given the wealth of talent Penn State has amassed, Lee said he could envision the workload being split equitably this coming fall. "There's a lot of competition," he said. "Everybody is coming to work. We're competing. Every day we're competing, all of us. It's going to be a tough decision. We're making it hard for Coach to decide." With so many variables in play, so many qualified contenders for the starting job, that decision may not be known until Penn State's offense trots onto the field for the first time on Sept. 4 at Wisconsin. At this point in the off-season, you could make a plausible case for nearly anyone. So, how does Lee fit into the mix after a season in which he "handled the mo- ments pretty well for a true freshman" by Franklin's reckoning? We'll see. ■ P H I L ' S T A K E Penn State went into the 2020 season with a back&eld that many college foot- ball analysts considered to be the Big Ten's best. But Journey Brown was diag- nosed with a heart condition in the o-season and saw his football career end before the campaign even began, while Noah Cain carried the football only three times for 13 yards before sustaining an ankle injury against Indiana that ended his season. Despite all that bad news, it appears Penn State has an excellent chance to &eld one of the top running games in the Big Ten this fall. Cain has re- portedly made a full recovery, and he's still one of the best inside power runners in the Big Ten. What's more, Penn State has built up considerable depth at the position. Keyvone Lee was the Nittany Lions' leading rusher as a true freshman last season, &nishing with 438 yards on 89 carries (4.9 yards per carry) and scor- ing four rushing touchdowns. Cain and Lee should provide the Lions with an outstanding pair of inside power runners. Also back are Caziah Holmes and Devyn Ford, and they've been joined by Baylor transfer John Lovett. During his career with the Bears, Lovett rushed for more than 1,800 yards. The key here is for either Ford, Holmes or Lovett to supply Penn State with the home run poten- tial it needs in the running game. All three have between 4.5- and 4.4-second 40-yard speed. If they can provide a big-play threat, the Nittany Lions should have one of the very best running games in the Big Ten this fall. ■

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