Nick Singleton stormed into the end zone untouched. He looked up and screamed in celebration then smacked himself three times on the face mask. Singleton ran toward the sideline where he was greeted by a joyous James Franklin, whose Penn State team was on its way to a 38-10 win over SMU in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
“That was a violent run,” Franklin told his lead running back, who looked him in the eyes and proclaimed, “I’m a violent (expletive)!” Franklin subtly agreed with him and backed up.
Singleton and fellow running back Kaytron Allen are running angry. They’ve combined for 389 rushing yards and five total touchdowns over the Nittany Lions’ past two games. Singleton, who’s battled injuries over the course of an abnormally long season, and Allen finally appear to be playing at full steam. Their breakout couldn’t have come at a better time.
“They’re both playing football at the highest level they have this year, which is what it should be at this point of the year, right?” offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said Thursday. “If we’re about daily improvement, if we’re about getting better every practice and every game, those things are happening, and that position is very evident of our philosophy and our values.”
Singleton entered the year with aspirations of becoming a more physical player. He already had the speed, but blossoming into an angry running back, like Allen, was a feature that had the power to turn him into one of the most dynamic offensive players in the country.
After nagging injuries that left him inactive against UCLA on Oct. 5 and limited for most of November, Singleton is nearing his magnum opus. He’s once again breaking out for explosive runs, he’s more involved in the pass game than he ever has before and he’s imposing his will on defensive players at an increasing rate. He’s the back coaches always hoped he’d become.
“I’m just trying to be more physical, running people over. If it’s a one-on-one situation where there’s nowhere to go, just picking somebody and just running them over,” Singleton said. “Being that physical back, just adding that to your tree as a running back, I feel like that’s good for any running back. You can be physical, you can run; all the aspects that you have, it just makes you more dangerous.”
It all makes Penn State more difficult to defend. That being said, Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson has his hands full game planning for Singleton and Allen, a pair he called “two of the best running backs” the Broncos have seen all year. “I don’t know it’s close,” Danielson said on Monday.
There are a number of pieces Kotelnicki has in his toolbox. There’s tight end Tyler Warren, quarterback Drew Allar and two running backs playing their best brand of football this season. With Singleton and Allen performing at such a high level, Kotelnicki said he now has “more flexibility” to use his backs in ways that can put stress on defenses.
“I feel like once we start going, the guys, they defend us differently; putting the safety more down, we’re obviously going to see that more often,” Singleton said. “But our offense is versatile. You have Drew that can run the ball, me and Kaytron. You got a guy like Tyler Warren, receivers. So, you can stop us, but there’s obviously other players that will be open too.”
The road has been long and, at times, painful. But the Nittany Lions’ two starting running backs are producing at a pace that’s been long anticipated. NFL Draft decisions loom for both Singleton and Allen, but the quest for an Orange Bowl semifinal bid and, ultimately, a national championship will come first.
“Both are kind of back to being at full strength, and you can kind of see that the last couple weeks, the way they both ran the football,” Kotelnicki said. “They’re so complementary of each other in terms of their skill sets and how we use them. Obviously, they’re impact players for us, and part of my job, my responsibility is make sure the impact players are getting the ball.”
