Blue White Illustrated

When the new season began for Penn State with a game against Akron on Sept. 2, Barkley served notice that he was a ready to have a great year. He rushed for 174 yards and two touch- downs against the Zips, averaging 12.3 yards per carry. He also gave an indica- tion of just how complete a football player he was, catching three passes for 54 yards and returning a kicko5 for 20 yards, for a total of 246 all-purpose yards. A week later against Pitt, he rushed for 101 yards on 13 carries (6.3 ypc) with one rushing touchdown. He was also Penn State's leading receiver with four catches for 45 yards and 183 all-purpose yards. In the third game of the season against Georgia State, Barkley was limited to 47 rushing yards on 10 carries, but he was unstoppable as a receiver, gaining 142 yards on only four catches. He 4nished with 226 all-purpose yards, but because the opponent was a lightly regarded team from the Sunbelt Conference, the performance didn't garner a lot of na- tional attention. The atmosphere was very di5erent the following week at Iowa. Not only was it Penn State's Big Ten opener, it was also a nationally televised prime time show- case. And Barkley made the most of it, rushing for 211 yards on 28 carries (7.5 ypc) with one rushing touchdown. He also was the Nittany Lions' leading re- ceiver for the third time in four games with 12 catches for 94 yards. Barkley 4n- ished with a career-high 358 all-purpose yards. And while it didn't get as much attention as his many eye-opening car- ries, he also was instrumental on the game's 4nal play, throwing a block that allowed Trace McSorley to complete the decisive touchdown pass in a 21-19 vic- tory. It was Barkley's superhero perform- ance against Iowa that positioned him on top of the Heisman Trophy leader board coming out of September. Several college football analysts made the mis- take of proclaiming – with eight regu- lar-season games remaining, including games against Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State – that the award was Barkley's to lose. It was in Penn State's fifth game of the season, against Indiana, that some red flags began to appear. Barkley did total 205 all- purpose yards against the Hoosiers, but nearly half of those yards came on the opening kickoff. He took it back 98 yards to give Penn State its first kick-return touchdown since 2010, when Chaz Powell re- turned one 100 yards against Youngstown State. Barkley also had 51 receiving yards on four catches, but his 20 carries netted only 56 yards (2.8 ypc), and he didn't have a touchdown on the ground. Indiana has been a much-improved defensive team under Tom Allen, so it may have been unrealistic to think that Barkley was going to run wild; he aver- aged only 1.8 yards on 33 rushing at- tempts against the Hoosiers a year earlier in Bloomington. But that per- formance did not portend good things with the toughest games of the season coming up. Against Northwestern, Barkley missed the 100-yard mark again, 4nishing with 75 rushing yards on 16 carries (4.7 ypc) and two touchdowns. Included in that total was a 53-yard run for a touchdown late in the third quarter. On his 15 other rushes against the Wildcats, he totaled only 22 yards for an average of 1.46 yards per carry. Things got a little bit better in the game against Michigan. Barkley rushed for 108 yards on 15 carries (7.2 ypc) with two rushing touchdowns. But 84 of those rushing yards came in the first five minutes of the game when he had touchdown runs of 69 and 15 yards. FAST START Barkley re- turned the opening kick- off 97 yards against Ohio State, but the Lions weren't able to main- tain their early lead. Photo by Steve Manuel

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