Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/604314
t's only natural, a part of human in- stinct, to compare the new with the old. Maybe it makes us more at ease, more grounded with change, when a person we just meet can be linked to someone more familiar. Or, maybe it's done simply for our own amusement. Always, though, it's for naught. It seems to happen a lot in sports. Whether it comes from fans, media or scouts, if you're good, there was some- one else before you who looked like you, but he was probably better. And what's the sense? Isn't the unpredictability of the individual what makes sports so en- tertaining and what continues to draw our eyes? Anomalies like Carl Nassib – a string bean, no-name walk-on turned Penn State sacks leader. Paradoxes like Christian Hackenberg – a possible first- round draft pick whose completion per- centage is among the worst in college football. No matter how hard we try to draw parallels between one player and the next, as Nassib and Hackenberg have shown, there are no cookie-cutter molds. In college football, a game steeped in tradition, the temptation to draw paral- lels between current and past players is irresistible. Each year across the country, there's that standout freshman who is in his breakout campaign – a few big plays here, a game-changing score there – and next thing you know an 18-year-old who JUDGMENT CALL HIS OWN MAN Comparisons do Saquon Barkley an injustice I hasn't even completed his first semester is being christened as the second-coming of that school's biggest legend. Todd Gurley became the next Herschel Walker. Ricky Williams was Earl Campbell. LeSean McCoy was Tony Dorsett. What time eventually revealed, how- ever, was that, although they put up similar results on the field, they did it – and in some cases are still doing it – in a style all their own. It's unfair to even set expectations like that to begin with, because bear in mind, for every freshman phe- nom there's a sophomore slump. With patience their true identi- ty forms; no reason to rush it by eagerly making comparisons to someone you already know. As Dorsett once put it so suc- cinctly, "He is LeSean. Let him be LeSean." Penn State is no exception lately, and it's been Saquon Barkley earning the honor – or burden? – of being likened to past greats. Listen to the arguments or read the persuasions presented as to why he's more like this former Nittany Lion instead of that one, and you get a full his- tory lesson in Penn State running backs. Barkley's vision is like Curt Warner's, they say. First-step explosiveness like Ki-Jana Carter. Freshman production like D.J. Dozier. The forward momentum of Larry Johnson. An upright running style like Tony Hunt. (I get it. The No. 26 jersey lends itself there, too.) The bal- ance of Evan Royster. Everyone seems to have an opinion and in most cases valid reasoning behind it, but really, any singular comparison fails at its base. A mixture thereof? That's more realistic. Because when it comes down to it, Barkley does evoke Dozier, Warner, Ki-Jana, L.J., Hunt and Royster, all at the same time. This isn't an anointment that he al- ready ranks with Penn State's all-time best. Of course not; that doesn't hap- pen after eight games. But it's clear that he's on his way, and his 836 yards head- ing into the Michigan game – along with a 6.3-yard per-carry average – are ROOM TO RUN Barkley was the Nit- tany Lions' primary of- fensive threat at Northwest- ern, rushing for 120 yards in a 23-21 loss. Photo by Steve Manuel