Penn State entered the 2023 season with high hopes that the running back tandem of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen could end up being one of the best in the nation. That didn’t quite pan out, but the Nittany Lions still posed a quality combination that resulted leading the Big Ten in per game yardage [only Michigan had more yards -133 more – and played two more games] and the conference’s best average per carry. The explosiveness may not have been there, but this running back room did plenty of good things in 2023. The grade reflects that.
The Grade: B
The Good: Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen didn’t live up to expectations when it comes to explosive plays but this duo was still a lot better than it gets credit for. In a show of real balance Allen and Singleton finished the year with Allen getting just one more carry than his counterpart but both proved to be useful workhorses over the course of the year. Allen finished the season 88 yards shy of 1,000 while averaging 5.24 yards per carry and landing 64th nationally in yards per game. Singleton had a modest but respectable 4.40 yards per carry clip to his name while finishing 250ish shy of 1,000 on the year. For the most part Allen lived up to the kind of bruising player Penn State fans were expecting and while Singleton didn’t continue to be the home run threat people were hoping for he still was plenty serviceable throughout the year.
Penn State finished the year 29th in rushing offense nationally, tied with the 2018 season for the highest mark under James Franklin. To balance that out Penn State was 33rd in the nation in total rushing attempts with 515 to its name, the highest total a Nittany Lion group has posted since 516 rushing attempts in 2019. This grade gets a knock a bit because while people were expecting this group to be the backbone of Penn State’s offense – and that was the case – it didn’t give the Nittany Lions quite the chunk play reliability that most were thinking it could have. That being said Penn State finished the year with 51 tackles for a loss allowed, the ninth best mark in the country. When push comes to shove this group was reliable on the whole, even if neither ended up being the clear No. 1 option. Trey Potts was also a nice addition to this group in his brief moments to shine.
The Not So Good: In many ways Penn State needed this group to be better and more explosive than it was. It’s probably unfair to hold a running back room to the standard of “just go break off 30 yard runs on a regular basis” [Penn State has nine such runs this year] but that was sort of the unstated hope for a lot of fans heading into the year. Singleton in particular seemed disappointed by his lack of explosive contributions.
If Penn State can get this duo to run like it did against Ole Miss it will have a very good 2024. If it can’t there’s nothing wrong with that, but fans will need to adjust their expectations. All told it’s hard to look at this room and say that it delivered on expectations. Whether or not those expectations were fair is a reasonable question, but it’s also fair to say that this group was theoretically capable of more explosive plays than it generated. Welcome to Penn State’s offense in 2023. There’s nothing singularly wrong with how this season went for Penn State’s running back room, but “not awful” is a low bar to carry.
Overall: Much like Drew Allar, your view of Penn State’s running back room has a lot to do with what you thought it was capable of. Allen and Singleton certainly appeared like a combination in 2022 that was going to do big and explosive things in 2023. A lot of people thought this group could have been the best tandem in the nation and that clearly wasn’t the case. All of that being said Penn State did a lot of good on the ground this year and not living up to expectations isn’t the same thing as being bad, especially if those expectations are that high.
See all of the Positional Grades HERE.
