Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/703041
P R E V I E W IN RARE FORM Saquon Barkley has already shown that he's a special talent, but he's far from satisfied as he prepares for year two W hen Saquon Barkley describes him- self, the 19-year-old Penn State running back runs out of ideas quickly. He's mellow, chill and laid back, he says. Watching Netflix and hanging out with his friends are what Barkley likes to do when he isn't studying, working out or playing football. "I'm just a plain guy," he says. "I'm nothing special. That's really it: I'm just a plain ol' average guy." His coaches, teammates and especially his fans, all of whom were witnesses to his debut in blue and white, would argue otherwise. Standing 5-foot-11, 220 pounds, Barkley needed only three months of game action to enter the program's record book. Among freshmen (both true and redshirt), he is the record-holder for total rushing yards after he accumulated 1,076 last season to shatter by 74 yards the mark that D.J. Dozier had set 22 years earlier. Barkley's freshman yardage outburst is also the 16th-best single-season mark in Penn State history, 6 yards shy of Lenny Moore's total from 1954. Barkley has surpassed expectations in his time at Penn State, both on the field and off. His sudden ascent to stardom, which began in only his second game when he upended the depth chart at running back with a dazzling performance against Buffalo, gradually evolved into one of the biggest stories at Penn State and the Big Ten. By the time he earned his first career start, in the Nittany Lions' eighth game of the season at Maryland, Barkley had already eclipsed the 100-yard mark in three games, including a stunning 26- carry, 194-yard evening against eventual Fiesta Bowl champion Ohio State. Despite missing two games due to injury midway through the year, Barkley estab- lished himself as one of college football's rising stars, earning second-team All-Big Ten honors and a bevy of Freshman All- America nods at the season's conclusion. And in the months since he made his re- markable debut, expectations have only grown higher. He's been on the cover of numerous preseason publications and has turned up on several Heisman Trophy watch lists. It's hard to avoid him these days, both on newsstands and online, but to hear teammates and coaches tell it, he's mostly oblivious to this reality. "I think for a guy who has gotten a lot of attention in a very, very short period of time, he's handled it very well," head coach R U N N I N G B A C K S | SAQUON BARKLEY GAME-BY-GAME RUSHING RECEIVING OPP ATT YDS TD LG AVG REC YDS TD LG Temple 1 1 0 1 1.0 0 0 0 – Bu1alo 12 115 1 33 9.6 0 0 0 – Rutgers 21 195 2 54 9.3 0 0 0 – San Diego State 8 62 0 34 7.8 1 22 1 22 Army DNP – – – – – – – – Indiana DNP – – – – – – – – Ohio State 26 194 0 56 7.5 0 0 0 0 Maryland 20 65 1 10 3.2 0 0 0 – Illinois 20 84 1 13 4.2 3 58 0 22 Northwestern 25 120 2 24 4.8 2 19 0 32 Michigan 15 68 0 56 4.5 2 19 0 14 Michigan State 17 103 0 22 6.1 3 -1 0 0 Georgia 17 69 0 29 4.1 5 13 0 5 TOTAL 182 1076 7 56 5.9 20 161 1 32