{"id":71644,"date":"2025-01-14T15:00:44","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T20:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=71644"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:33:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:33:03","slug":"running-it-back-at-penn-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/01\/14\/running-it-back-at-penn-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Running It Back at Penn State"},"content":{"rendered":"

If nothing else, the decisions at Penn State have come quickly after the College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinal loss to Notre Dame<\/a>.\u00a0 The defensive line is already beginning to reshape itself, with Abdul Carter<\/a> being the major piece opting to enter the NFL Draft.\u00a0 Additionally, quarterback Drew Allar<\/a> has announced he is returning.\u00a0 Similarly, Nick Singleton<\/a> and Kaytron Allen<\/a>, the team’s star running backs, announced that they are running it back at Penn State for another season.\u00a0 This is a huge win for head coach James Franklin and offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki.<\/p>\n

Running It Back at Penn State<\/h2>\n

Senior Season<\/h3>\n

Both Singleton and Allen will be returning seniors.\u00a0 This is significant for the team and for them personally.\u00a0 Along with Allar, the foundation of the quarterback and running back positions will be returning for a third year.\u00a0 This brings consistency and leadership in the second year of Kotelnicki’s offense.\u00a0 Singleton and Allen are also different types of runners.\u00a0 The thunder-and-lightning combination will arguably be the strongest running back room in the nation.\u00a0 For the players personally, it gives them the opportunity to improve what is already a favorable NFL draft status.\u00a0 Given the wear and tear that running backs go through, not many with the skill of Singleton and Allen play their senior seasons.\u00a0 However, these backs split carries, reducing the mileage that they will ultimately leave college with.\u00a0 Singleton and Allen are also close friends, and that likely played a role in their decisions.<\/p>\n

Nick Singleton: Lightning<\/h3>\n

As the bigger-play threat of the two, Nick Singleton can run for a touchdown anytime he touches the ball.\u00a0 This was on display during the playoffs.\u00a0 In the win over Boise State<\/a>, Singleton clinched the game with a back-breaking 58-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to cap the scoring.\u00a0 He also had rushes of over 40 yards this season against the Oregon defense in the Big Ten Championship game<\/a>, as well as against West Virginia<\/a> and Bowling Green<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the season, Singleton rushed for 1,099 yards (second on the team behind Allen) despite topping 100 yards only three times.\u00a0 His 12 touchdowns, including three against Notre Dame, led the team.\u00a0 For his career, Singleton has amassed 2,912 yards on the ground with 32 touchdowns on an average of 5.8 yards per carry.\u00a0 He topped 1,000 yards in two of his three seasons so far.<\/p>\n

Singleton is also a threat catching the ball out of the backfield.\u00a0 He caught 41 passes this season.\u00a0 This was by far the most of any running back on the team and was third on the squad behind Tyler Warren and Harrison Wallace III.\u00a0 Singleton’s five receiving touchdowns were tied for second on the team.\u00a0 Singleton will be running it back at Penn State both on the ground and through the air next season.<\/p>\n

Kaytron Allen: Thunder<\/h3>\n

A great complement to Singleton’s big-play potential is the power running style of Kaytron Allen.\u00a0 The coaching staff has a ton of confidence, and rightly so, in Allen’s ability to succeed in short-yardage situations.\u00a0 He is relied upon to wear down defenses, opening up the potential for big plays not only by Singleton running but also by Allar in the passing game.\u00a0 Kotelnicki has traditionally used the running game to open up the passing attack, and Allen plays the part well.<\/p>\n

This past season, Allen led the team with 1,108 yards and gained over 100 yards on four different occasions.\u00a0 One such game was against Boise State, where he ran for 134 yards on 17 carries.\u00a0 Allen averaged 5.0 yards per carry, and his eight touchdowns were second on the team behind Singleton.\u00a0 He scored twice in the win over SMU<\/a>. \u00a0Allen has amassed 2,877 yards on the ground for his career,\u00a0with 24 touchdowns on an average of 5.1 yards per carry.\u00a0 This season was the first where he topped 1,000 yards.\u00a0 Allen will be running it back at Penn State next season with a lot of momentum from this year.<\/p>\n

Though not as much of a receiving threat as Singleton, Allen did contribute to the passing game throughout his career thus far.\u00a0 This season, he caught 18 passes and scored two touchdowns through the year.\u00a0 For his three-season career to this point, he sits at 52 catches and four touchdowns.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If nothing else, the decisions at Penn State have come quickly after the College Football Playoff (CFP) semifinal loss to Notre Dame.\u00a0 The defensive line is already beginning to reshape itself, with Abdul Carter being the major piece opting to enter the NFL Draft.\u00a0 Additionally, quarterback Drew Allar has announced he is returning.\u00a0 Similarly, Nick […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5172,"featured_media":71653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,10906,2,35610],"tags":[32817,7051,837,309,7449,8852,8145],"class_list":["post-71644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-cfb","category-featured","category-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-andy-kotelnicki","tag-harrison-wallace","tag-james-franklin","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-penn-state-offense","tag-penn-state-running-backs","tag-tyler-warren"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71644"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71654,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71644\/revisions\/71654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}