Blue White Illustrated

T I M   O W E N | O W E N . T I M . B W I @ G M A I L . C O M D E C E M B E R   3 0 ,   2 0 1 6 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M 11 Barkley excels as all-around offensive threat Chris Godwin could only watch in awe as running back Saquon Barkley hauled in the go-ahead touchdown catch against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. Not only was it a sharply run wheel route to the corner of the end zone, but the 18-yard catch was a complicated over-the-shoulder grab that even some of the most polished wide receivers can have trouble corralling. "I told him aBer it happened that was really an impressive catch – not only for a running back but for anybody," said Godwin, a junior wideout who has led the Lions in receiving the past two sea- sons. "Anytime you have to track the ball over your shoulder, it's easy to lose track of that thing." Barkley agreed with his teammate's ap- praisal of the degree of difficulty. "As a running back, you really don't practice that catch as much as wide receivers," he said. "For Godwin, Hammy [DaeSean Hamilton], Mike [Gesicki] and all those guys, it just comes natural to them. They do it every single day, but for running backs it's not as easy. You don't work on that every single day, because you still have to work on pass blocking, covering and all the little steps that you need to be successful as a running back." But it was something that he focused on, and as such, it was emblematic of the ap- proach he took throughout the off-season. Before the season began, Barkley said that one of his priorities was to become a more-well rounded player. He had rushed for more than 1,000 yards as a freshman, but he wanted more than that, and not just on the ground. He wanted to hone in on his pass-blocking skills, but he also wanted to become more of a threat in the receiving game. He had caught 20 passes for 161 yards in 2015 but scored only one touch- down and averaged 8.1 yards per catch. As a sophomore, Barkley's reception total has ticked up only a little – he's caught 23 passes heading into the Rose Bowl – but his yardage total has shot up to 347, for an average of 15.1 yards per catch, and he's also scored three touch- downs through the air. Thanks in large part to his development as a receiver, Barkley has amassed 1,666 all-purpose yards, the most by a Penn State running back since Larry Johnson in 2002. "I wanted to become a complete back, and I was studying and watching guys like Christian McCaffery [of Stanford], how he could pretty much do it all," Barkley said. "I wanted to expand my game, and receiving was one thing I wanted to expand also. Obviously I'm not satisfied with [this year]. I feel like I can still do better in that category, but I had a bunch of opportunities to be able to make plays." And he saw it pay off throughout the season, but perhaps never more so than against the Badgers with that fourth- quarter score. "Catching the ball over your shoulder … that's probably one of the hardest catches in college football, or football in general," Barkley said. "A lot of running backs can't make that. I don't want to be a one-dimensional running back. I want to be different. I want to be able to do it all. I want to run, catch, block and I want to be able to run you over. Whatever. I just try to be a complete back for my team and help my team." And he knows when the wheel route gets called, there's a good chance he'll be in a position to provide that help. "I personally feel like if a linebacker is on me and Coach calls that wheel route and [the linebacker] comes underneath the route, speed on speed, I don't think anyone is capable of staying with me," Barkley said. "I just have to lock in and focus on trying to making that catch. A lot of times over the shoulder, that's not an easy catch. That's one of the toughest catches. When that play gets called, I get a little jittery and a little anxious because I know it can be a big play." Throughout the off-sea- son, Barkley focused on becoming a better pass- catcher. That work paid off, as he has more than doubled his receiving yardage as a sophomore. His 18-yard touchdown catch against Wisconsin was one of the pivotal plays in the Nittany Lions' comeback victory. Photo by Steve Manuel

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