Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1490816
2 0 F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 3 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Nicholas Singleton and fellow freshman running back Kaytron Allen are part of a youth movement that has inspired high hopes for PSU's future P enn State knew it was taking a risk when quarterback Sean Clifford handed off to freshman running back Nicholas Singleton with the score tied and the Nittany Lions needing a first down to avoid punting from their own goal line in the third quarter of the Rose Bowl. It wasn't that the Lions had called a running play; they needed only 2 yards. It was that they had called a running play against a "bear" front by Utah. The Utes were in an alignment designed to clog up gaps in the middle of the line of scrim- mage, making it difficult to run the ball in short-yardage situations. As coach James Franklin later admitted, "I wouldn't say that's an ideal front to run that play into." Penn State's coaching staff had two tricks up its sleeve, though. The first was a quick snap that caught the Utes off-guard. Safety R.J. Hubert had been creeping up closer to the line of scrimmage and was looking over to the sideline, seemingly unsure of his position- ing, just as Singleton took the handoff. The second trick? That was Single- ton himself. He may not be deceptively fast considering that there was a trove of video from the regular season showing Fre sh L eg s h L eg s M A T T H E R B | M AT T. H E R B @ O N 3 . C O M "I don't think you need to do much there except keep feeding them the rock. I think the message from me is, we're going to just keep going with you guys. It is what it is. We're going to keep going, just being steadfast and making sure that they get enough touches, in my mind. That shows them that the offensive coor- dinator has a lot of faith in them and that we're going to give them the ball." O F F E N S I V E C O O R D I N A T O R M I K E Y U R C I C H O N S I N G L E T O N A N D A L L E N