Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/890458
P E N N S T A T E F O O T B A L L >> Translation: Now there's another player who deserves a share of the carries that Barkley doesn't get. It keeps the compe- tition sharp in Huff's room. In addition to the abundance of worthy candidates, the offensive scheme that Penn State runs puts a ceiling on how many chances these guys get. Joe Moor- head's check-with-me system is de- signed to be responsive to what the defense is doing, so the Lions don't go into any game with a plan to get the run- ning backs a predetermined number of carries. Before the Iowa game, even Barkley was averaging far fewer touches than the other national leaders in all- purpose yardage through the first half of the season, and that makes it difficult to ensure that his backups get an equal number of chances. If the defense is presenting a look that appears conducive to a run play, the Lions will call it. If not, if a defense brings a safety closer to the line of scrimmage, they'll call something other than a hand- off. It's not often that the running backs know when they're getting the ball. While they wait, it's up to them to maintain a positive outlook and then be ready to make the most of their opportu- nities when they arise. "We talk in our room all the time, you can't control what you can't control," Huff said. "You can't control when you get in the game. You can't control how many carries, how many plays or how many yards. You can go in a game for 10 plays and the defense calls for 10 passes. That doesn't mean you're not a good run- ning back. I think last year all three of those guys sometimes were allowing that to dictate whether they had a good game or not. Obviously, you want to score and touch the ball, but that doesn't mean you had a good game because you did touch the ball or didn't touch the ball. I think this year all three of those guys under- stand that." ■ While Penn State's depth chart at running back is top-heavy, at the bot- tom is true freshman Journey Brown, toiling away on the scout team, mak- ing progress in his development. Brown, of Meadville, Pa., was a late addition to Penn State's Class of 2017. He was the fastest high school sprinter in Pennsylvania track and field at Meadville High, and he piled up yards as a running back while fac- ing competition from a lesser-known part of the state. When he showed up at Penn State, he discovered that he had some catching up to do, espe- cially when he compared his game to that of his upperclassman team- mates. But as running backs coach Charles Huff recently explained, Brown has made ample progress. "I would say Journey has probably made the biggest strides," Huff said. Penn State's goal is to transform the 5-foot-11, 200-pounder from a speedster into an all-around ball car- rier. "When he first got here, he was a track guy who was really, really fast, who was athletic enough to be a good football player," Huff said. "Now he's put on weight. He's still very fast. You can tell when he touches the ball he looks different. Now he's starting to understand our scheme, our concepts. He's starting to understand college, the lifestyle of going to class, [that it] is more than lifting weights and going to meet- ings, all those things. So I'd probably say he has made the biggest strides. When he first got here, he was a track guy. He is fast, but he had a ways to go with football. Now you're starting to see things from a football perspective that make you say, OK, this guy has a chance to be really good. "With that being said, he probably had the wider gap to close than some of the other guys. We knew he was a little raw when we recruited him, just because he was multisport. He played basketball, he did track, he played football, so there was never really a time he just devoted to developing as a football player. He was constantly developing as an athlete. Now that he's been here since [the summer], he's starting to develop as a football player who has unbelievable athletic ability. So we're really impressed and excited about where he's going to be in a year." –T.O. Brown making strides behind the scenes for PSU JOURNEY BROWN Nate Bauer