Perhaps more than anyone, the Nittany Lion dynamic duo of Fatman & Singleton will benefit from the trifecta of new additions on the offensive side of the ball — OC Andy Kotelnicki and recent transfer portal pickups wide receiver Julian Fleming and tackle Nolan Rucci.
The three are much more than the Penn State running backs could have hoped for back on Oct. 21, when Penn State lost 20-12 in Columbus to the Buckeyes, Fleming’s former team. It was the nadir of the Nittany Lions’ running game, and offense, in 2023.
Against Ohio State, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen (aka Fatman) both had nine carries, with Singleton gaining 48 yards and Allen just 26 as Penn State’s running game that afternoon netted only 49 yards on 26 carries (counting four sacks)— a paltry 1.88 yards per carry. And that included a 20-yarder by Singleton.
What a difference three months makes.
First, James Franklin fired OC Mike Yurcich mere hours after a 24-15 loss to Michigan, a game in which Allen ran for 91 yards but Singleton had just 20. Yurcich lasted 34 months, 37 games (26-11) and 6 losses to Ohio State and Michigan — averaging just 19.3 points vs. the Big Two.
Then, in a span of three days in the past week, Franklin snagged two former PA prep five-stars.
WON, TWO, THREE
It’s been quite a run by the Penn State head coach. And here’s why it is a good thing for Singleton and Allen, specifically:
• Kotelnicki brings a history of offensive innovations from Kansas and Buffalo and a predilection for the running game that has been somewhat under the wire. In Kotelnicki’s three seasons (2021-23) as the offensive coordinator at Kansas, the Jayhawks’ offense ran the ball 58% of the time. And, in his final three seasons as OC at Buffalo (2018-20), the Bulls’ offense ran 64.4% of the time — and produced a pair of 1,000-yard rushers in 2019: Jaret Patterson (1,799 yards, 5.8 ypc, 19 TDs) and Kevin Marks (1,035, 4.6, 8).
(To compare: From 2021-23, under Yurcich, PSU ran the ball 52.2% of the time. And for Franklin, in his 10 years at Penn State, his teams have run the ball 53.5% of the time.)
“I know he had two backs rush for over 1,000 yards, both in the same season,” Singleton said prior to the Peach Bowl. “Coach Andy is already doing a good job. I can’t wait.”
A strong tenet of Kotelnicki’s offensive philosophy is having wide receivers who can — and do — block. Which brings us to:
• Fleming adds a much-needed experienced target, and blocker, at wide receiver. He’ll alleviate some of the pressure on the Penn State running game, though his forte is the short game.
According to Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports, “Of Fleming’s 79 career receptions at Ohio State (in 2020-23), 61 came within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it. Nine of them came between 11 and 15 air yards…. Ohio State targeted Fleming 25 times on throws of at least 16 air yards in his career, and he caught only nine.” Penn State QB Drew Allar will not be taking any Godwinian deep shots in Fleming’s direction.
But, here’s a big reason the PSU RBs should be especially joyful: Fornelli says, “Fleming blocks his ass off in the run game.” When it comes to run-blocking at Ohio State in 2023, only offensive tackle Josh Fryar graded higher in 2023.
• Then there’s Rucci, a Penn State legacy — his dad, Todd, was a starting O-lineman for the Nittany Lions and played eight seasons at offensive guard with the New England Patriots. Nolan was the No. 1 PA prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, and spent the past three seasons at Wisconsin. He redshirted in 2021 and played sparingly the past two seasons. He played 70 snaps in his Badger career, with half coming in Wisconsin’s 35-21 loss to LSU in the ReliaQuest Bowl on New Year’s Day.
The young Rucci’s arrival is the perfect example of the just-in-time-inventory nature of the portal; appropriate, given Penn State’s status as the No. 1 university in the nation in supply chain, a program established by the late John Coyle, Penn State’s NCAA faculty rep for decades.
Rucci could step right in and start. Penn State’s starting offensive tackles the past two seasons, Olu Fashanu and Caedan Wallace, are off to the NFL — with Fashanu an expected top 5/10 pick. Drew Shelton, who started the Peach Bowl, has five career starts at offensive tackle, but the Nittany Lions do not have any other O-tackles on the roster who have started at the college level.
SWAN SONG?
The 2024 season could be the final one for both Allen and Singleton, who have shared the running spot over the past two seasons just about as equally as humanly possible.
“I always say cream rises to the top,” running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider said in the days leading up to the Peach Bowl. “I think from Day One when they got here, they continue to rise. You look at them — let’s be honest, we’ve all got to be worried next year in a way because this could probably be their last year next year.”
When they were freshmen in 2022, Singleton outrushed Allen 1,061 yards to 867, Allen ran for more yards in 2023 — 902 to 752. Here’s a look at their statistics in 2022-23. In many ways, their numbers are amazingly similar. Seider couldn’t have done a better job of delegating RB duties more equitably:
| 2023 carries/yds | 2023 carries by quarter | 2023 by down | Career carries/yds. | Career receptions | TDs | |
| Allen | 172 / 902 | 50-50-56-16 | 101-52-18-1 | 339-1760 | 34 / 269 | 18 |
| Singleton | 171 / 752 | 51-50-37-33 | 95-56-20-0 | 327-1813 | 37 / 393 | 24 |
The biggest differentiator? Singleton has been Penn’s State primary kick returner the past two seasons. In 2022-23, Singleton returned 27 kickoffs for 662 yards, for a sterling 24.5-yard average. He returned a kickoff 100 yards for a TD vs. Rutgers in 2022.
Seider knows what he has in the two running backs.
”It’s a luxury to have two super-talented kids,” Seider said at Penn State’s bowl media day at Beaver Stadium in December. “I don’t take it for granted how talented these kids are. Being their coach and seeing them stay here and sticking together… it’s not about me. It’s about them.
“I’ve never had two this good at the same time. Ever. It’s not just the talent. It’s seeing how they’ve grown since they got here and how unselfish they are in this era of football, when it’s about me, me, me.”
Though they live off-campus, Allen and Singleton are roommates. They have each other’s back and they both profess it is a healthy relationship — in more ways than one:
Allen: “Nick is my dawg, you know what I mean? It’s good because you get to learn off each other. You get to support each other, you feel me. It is not just about what you see. It’s about what he’s seeing too. So just helping each other. “
Singleton: “We’re competing against each other every day, which makes us better and helps keep each of us healthy. A lot of programs, I see people getting 30 carries. It’s good for them, but that’s a lot of carries. You want to stay as healthy as possible. It’s a long season, so you don’t want to beat yourself up.”
