Penn State Football in No Rush to Get Running Game Going

When it comes to a 100-yard rusher — the coveted century mark that has been a signature stat in football for over a century — Penn State is ofer-2021.

Penn State’s running game has mostly stalled since Journey Brown busted out for 202 yards and two TDs against Memphis in the 2019 Cotton Bowl.

In their last 15 games, the Nittany Lions have had a runner go over 100 yards just twice: 

• Quarterback Sean Clifford — 119 yards on 17 carries vs. Indiana in the 2020 season opener.

• Running back Keyvone Lee — 134 yards on 22 carries at Michigan on Nov. 28, 2020.

Lee’s big game against the Wolverines was nine games and 11 months ago.

What in the name of Mike Yurcich is going on?

Certainly, there are reasons why the Lawn Boyz haven’t been cutting it up:

A premature end to Brown’s career before the 2020 season even started; a season-ending injury to Noah Cain against Indiana last season; a 2020 offense that relied on the running of since-departed QB Will Levis for several games; what looks to be lingering problems for Cain in 2021; and a steady diet of good teams that are pretty great against the run. The Nittany Lions’ offensive line has to shoulder some of the responsibility as well.

About Levis last year:

He led or co-led the Nittany Lion offense in the number of rushes four times in 2020, with totals of 18, 15, 17 and 15 carries. That strategy, or lack thereof, resulted in Levis bolting to Kentucky, where he is 6-1 as a starter, and erstwhile PSU O-coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca getting fired and ending up in Morgantown as an analyst for West Virginia. It probably didn’t help develop Penn State’s young running backs, either.

BTW: So far in 2021, Levis has 277 yards rushing on 50 carries, while the Wildcats’ leading rusher is running back Kavosiey Smoke, with 127 carries for 775 yards – five more than all of Penn State combined this season.

In 2021, the Nittany Lions have broken out for 204 rushing yards against Ball State and 209 against Indiana. But, they also had 50 at Wisconsin, 94 against Auburn, 80 against Villanova and 107 at Iowa.

In defense of the Penn State offense, Wisconsin is No. 3 in the nation in run defense, allowing just 64 yards per game, while Iowa is No. 7 at 89.7 yards. And Villanova, undefeated in six games save for its loss to Penn State, is yielding a stingy 68.5 yards per game on the ground.

Overall, Penn State has run the ball 208 times for 770 yards in six games. That’s an average of 128.3 yards per game — ranking it No. 94 out of 130 major college football teams. The Nittany Lions’ 3.7 average yard per carry ain’t so great, either.

Their 2021 run game has produced only 44 first downs (1 vs. Wisconsin, 5 vs. Auburn, 6 vs. Iowa) and eight touchdowns. By comparison, in 13 games in 2019, Penn State had 125 rushing first downs and 34 rushing touchdowns.

Individually, the top PSU rushers look like this after six game; Lee has been the most effective by far:

Player	Att.	Yds.	Ave.	TD	Per Game
Keyvone Lee	38	204	5.4	0	34.0
Noah Cain	67	202	3.0	4	33.7
Sean Clifford	44	173	3.9	2	28.8
John Lovett	23	99	4.1	0	23.8
Devyn Ford	11	50	4.5	0	8.3
T. Roberson	12	24	2.0	0	6.0

Lee’s 74 yards on eight carries against Indiana is the individual season-high for the Nittany Lions, followed by Cain’s 69 yards, Lee’s 68 yards and Clifford’s 66 yards – all against Ball State. (It took Cain 20 carries to get his 69 vs. Indiana, while Lee got just about the same yardage in just eight carries.)

At this rate, this will be Penn State’s third consecutive season without a 1,000-yard rusher. That takes a bit of the shine off of what James Franklin had built as far as a big-time run game room reputation. Running backs coach/run game coordinator Ja’Juan Seider arrived in 2018.

Leading rusher Brown had 890 yards in 13 games in 2019 and Lee had 438 in the nine-game season that was pandemic 2020. Prior to that, Penn State’s backs were on a darn good run: Saquon Barkley had 1,076 yards in 2016, 1,496 in 2016 and 1,271 in 2017. Miles Sanders had 1,274 yards in 2018.

Illinois on Saturday at noon in Beaver Stadium represents Penn State’s best shot at putting together a solid effort in its running game over the second half of the season. The Illini defense ranks No. 87 nationally against the run, yielding an average of 163 yards per game. The rest of the way, Penn State’s foes are very solid against the run. Specifically, they are: Ohio State (giving up 131 rushing yards per game), Maryland (126), Michigan (119), Rutgers (149) and Michigan State (123).

As it stands, the Nittany Lions are having an historically difficult time running the ball. Dating back to 1950, their per-game average yards rushing ranks fourth-worst of the past 72 seasons. Here’s a look at Penn State’s worst rushing years since 1950, followed by the remaining seasons in the James Franklin Era:

Year	Att.	Yards	Ave.	Per Game	Leader
2014	451	1,325	2.9	101.9	Lynch, 678
2001	383	1,317	3.4	119.7	Johnson, 337
2003	397	1,464	3.7	122.0	Scott, 436
2021	208	770	3.7	128.3	Lee, 204
2004	367	1,429	3.9	129.9	Hunt, 777
2015	424	1,741	4.1	133.9	Barkley, 1,076
2016	540	2,406	4.5	171.9	Barkley, 1,496
2017	451	2,212	4.9	170.2	Barkley, 1,271
2018	521	2,664	5.1	204.9	Sanders, 1,274
2019	516	2,478	4.8	190.6	Brown, 890
2020	402	1,569	3.9	174.3	Lee, 438