Penn State phenom running back Saquon Barkley picked up Co-Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week honors following his performance in the Nittany Lions’ shutout win over Akron on Saturday. He shares the honor with Ohio State’s J.T. Barrett.
By late in the third quarter Barkley had amassed a whopping 246 all-purpose yards on 18 touches, rushing for 172 yards on 14 carries (12.3 ypc) with two touchdowns and added three receptions for 54 yards (18.0 ypr). He also returned on kick 20 yards.
Among Barkley’s big plays Saturday none were as long ash his 80-yard rush in the second quarter, the second-longest of his career and tied for the 10th-best rush in program history. Barkley and Ki-Jana Carter are the only players in program history to have multiple 80-yard rushes in their career.
Barkley, who had his 11th career 100-yard rushing game, boosted his career rushing yardage total to 2,744 yards to move into 11th place in Penn State history.
Not to be lost in the weekly award shuffle, Penn State also launched Barkley’s Heisman Campaign with a website you can see here.
