Penn State Sports Magazine
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2 2 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 2 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M between rhetoric and reality the past few years. "I'm not going to sit here and pound the table about how this is the year," he said. "That hasn't necessarily played out the past couple of years. I'm going to take a more measured approach and let us prove that to you on the offensive line." Big-Play Potential Franklin's discretion was entirely un- derstandable. The ground game pro- duced its share of unsightly statistics last year, including an 84-yard performance against FCS foe Villanova in which the Lions averaged 2.5 yards per carry. Perhaps no stat told the tale better than this one, though: Not a single Penn State running back topped 100 yards in any game last year. The team's best show- ing was an 88-yard effort by Keyvone Lee against Michigan. Now a third-year sophomore, Lee fin- ished the 2021 season with a team-high 530 yards. His total was a bit better than in 2020, his true freshman season, in which he gained 438 yards after showing po- tential late in the year. But those yearly rushing totals are the lowest at Penn State since Austin Scott managed only 436 yards in 2003. Historically, the ground game has been a bellwether for PSU. When it's been good, the Nittany Lions have thrived. When it's been bad, they've struggled. Since 2000, there have been nine foot- ball seasons in which the Lions didn't field a 1,000-yard rusher. In only one of those seasons did they win more than seven games. In five of them, they finished with a losing record. The one outlier was the 2019 season. Journey Brown finished with 890 yards, but the Nittany Lions still won 11 games, largely because their rushing attack actu- ally was quite effective by the end of the year thanks to Brown's late emergence as the kind of game-breaking threat who could turn an ordinary carry into a 40- or 50-yard gain. However, Brown had to give up football just prior to the 2020 season due to a heart condition. Ever since, the Nittany Lions have struggled to generate big plays on the ground. They simply haven't had that type of dynamic running back in their backfield. Do they have one this year? At media day, Franklin hailed the "new faces in that room who have created some good competition and depth." He was refer- ring to true freshmen Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen. Singleton in particular has been eliciting buzz; a 6,000-yard high school career will have that effect. Franklin suggested that the backfield, which also returns fourth-year junior Devyn Ford and redshirt sophomore Caziah Holmes in addition to Lee, could have the kind of explosiveness that's been missing since Brown was forced to medi- cally retire. "I think the biggest thing is the poten- tial for big plays in the running game," he said. "That's going to be really important for us. Your numbers are always going to be impacted if you don't have any of those long runs to affect not only field position but also averages. "And then I think that plays a role in taking some of the pressure off of the passing game. That should create some more big-play potential off play-action passes." Yurcich described Singleton as "a very gifted runner." "We're sharing a lot of reps right now," he said. "It's been a lot of fun to watch all of the backs. It's a really good backfield. "Nick has a special talent. He's still got to progress in protections and just the fundamentals of tailback play, but those are all things that Coach [Ja'Juan] Seider will teach extremely well and thoroughly. We're going to continue to see growth from him." Yurcich was also enthused about the offensive line's development. "Those guys have been very physical, their at- Preparing for his third season on Penn State's coaching staff, Phil Trautwein must replace three starters from last year's offensive line. PHOTO BY DANIEL ALTHOUSE