Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/847744
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> he first time Saquon Barkley touched the ball in the second half of the Rose Bowl, he ran 79 yards for a touchdown. It was a spectacular moment from a spectacular game, and what makes it so endlessly replayable is how quickly Barkley shifts gears. After dodging a tackle attempt 2 yards deep in the backfield, he slides to his right, only to find Southern Cal safety Marvell Tell waiting for him. Barkley keeps moving sideways, looking for an opening, hoping to turn the corner before he runs out of room. Moments later, Tell is on the turf and Barkley is into the next level, where he jukes past an arm tackle and shoots into the clear. That's the spectacular part. As soon as he's out of his cut, Barkley is at full speed. The replay looks unnatural, as if there's something wrong with the tape. Watch it on YouTube and you'll wonder if your video card is malfunction- ing. It's not. He really is that fast, and his long touchdown run in the Rose Bowl encapsulates why Barkley is getting so much preseason atten- tion. It showcases his speed, vision and elusive- ness, which combine to make him perhaps the best running back in the country and probably the best at Penn State since Larry Johnson in the early 2000s. But it doesn't just work as an illus- tration of his rare talent. It's also a nice visual metaphor for the Nittany Lion football program as a whole – its recent past, and, if all goes as players, coaches and fans hope, its immediate future. At the start of last season, the program seemed to be struggling to make the kind of forward progress that its supporters were increasingly expecting as James Franklin's recruits were be- ginning to play more prominent roles and the ef- fects of the NCAA sanctions were finally starting to abate. After a 49-10 loss at Michigan in the Big Ten opener, which dropped the team's record to 2-2 and Franklin's overall record at Penn State to 16-14, athletic director Sandy Bar- bour was forced to offer the coach a public vote of confidence, telling an audience in Altoona that "he's not on the hot seat, and he's not going to be on the hot seat in December." Those tentative, lateral moves to start the sea- son were followed by a game against Minnesota on Oct. 1 in which the Nittany Lions finally found their opening. They hit the hole, and they hit it at full speed, rebounding from a 10-point halftime deficit by outscoring the previously unbeaten Gophers 17-0 in the third quarter and ending the game with a 25-yard touchdown burst by Barkley on their first offensive play in overtime. It was a rousing triumph, and it touched off a nine-game winning streak that in- cluded comeback victories over No. 2 Ohio State and No. 6 Wisconsin in the Big Ten Champi- onship Game. Their ascent from December bowl aspi- rants to dark horse national championship contenders FIRSTAND GOAL T They may be coming off a Big Ten championship, but the Nittany Lions are far from satisfied as they head into their latest campaign