During the preseason, then-Penn State head coach James Franklin was asked about the Nittany Lions’ looming RB3 battle and said it was “going to be critical” for the team’s success.
But after 12 regular season games, the five players Franklin said were in contention for the role had totaled just 11 carries, providing minimal insight into an important battle heading into next season.
On Saturday, Penn State may have found an answer — not just for this year’s RB3, but for next year’s RB1. Redshirt freshman Quinton Martin rushed 20 times for 101 yards in the Nittany Lions’ 22-10 Pinstripe Bowl victory over Clemson, a resounding statement to close out the year.
“I didn’t think I was going to get 20 carries,” Martin said. “My mentality was, come into this game with effort, play the best I can. You know, go off my teammates, and just be great.”
With Nick Singleton opting out to prepare for the NFL draft and Kaytron Allen unavailable after being listed as questionable on the pregame availability report, the Nittany Lions trotted out redshirt freshman Corey Smith for the opening drive.
But Martin found his way into the game soon after and saw more success than Smith, who finished with nine carries for 17 yards. For Martin, who hadn’t played a snap all year, it was “an honor.”
“It means a lot to me,” Martin said. “I’ve been waiting two years behind Nick and Kaytron. I learned a lot from them. You know, they showed me a lot about the game, what you need to be able to play at this level. So this tonight, meant a lot to me, and I’m very grateful for it.”
The former four-star recruit was a consensus top-10 running back in the class and ranked as the No. 3 Pennsylvania native in the cycle. It’s not often a player of that caliber rides the bench for two full seasons, but it’s not often a team has two NFL-caliber running backs start for four years either.
“There’s definitely points throughout, when you’re on the sideline, when you’re on on the bench, that’s the biggest motivator,” Martin said. “So I definitely was in my head a couple times, but I just had to talk to my family and just stay patient.”
Martin said he “got into flow state” during the second half of the contest, when he gathered 16 of his carries and the Nittany Lions began to pull away from the Tigers.
“We really leaned on him in the second half,” interim head coach Terry Smith said. “And he answered the call. He was downhill running all night, and he was big time for us.”
Martin made a strong case to be the starter for the Nittany Lions next season, but he has options to weigh this offseason, a process he isn’t taking lightly. The head coach he committed to is at Virginia Tech, and the running backs coach he worked with this season — Stan Drayton — is headed to South Carolina.
Martin called it a “tricky” situation and said he needs to take the process more seriously than he did during his initial high school recruitment, when he got caught up in the attention he was getting from schools. Martin said he’ll rely heavily on his parents for advice as he figures out the next chapter of his career, in Happy Valley or elsewhere.
He said the most important factors to him are “family, trust and want to win. I want a program that wants to win.” He also said the retention of Smith — who recruited him out of Belle Vernon High School — is an important element, describing him as “like an uncle.”
And while Martin hasn’t met one-on-one with new head coach Matt Campbell, who’s in the process of doing so with every player, he came away impressed by his initial team meeting,
“I got the opportunity to listen to him speak, and I really like him,” Martin said. “I like what he’s about. I like his culture, and I’m looking forward to speaking with him.”
