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Nick Singleton races 70 yards for first Penn State touchdown

nate-mug-10.12.14by:Nate Bauer•09/10/22•

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Penn State true freshman running back Nick Singleton. (Daniel Althouse/BWI)

Nick Singleton is on the board with his first career touchdown as a Penn State football player. And it was a particularly highlight-reel worthy effort.

With the Nittany Lions leading Ohio 7-0 late in the first quarter at Beaver Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the true freshman tailback broke free for a 70-yard TD dash. Taking a pitch toward the Nittany Lion sideline, the former On3 Consensus five-star running back, ranked No. 1 nationally in the Class of 2022 among all backs, Singleton followed right guard Sal Wormley.

Then, with a cut, he was gone.

Riding the right sideline as he raced past a pair of Ohio defenders, Singleton pushed ahead untouched the rest of the way. The play gave Penn State a 14-0 advantage and, maybe more important, brought to fruition a long-sought goal of head coach James Franklin.

Nick Singleton’s big impact

Following a season in which Penn State was unable to accumulate many chunk plays in the running game, finishing the 2021 campaign without a carry over 50 yards, the influx of talent at running back this offseason was intended to help bring about a radical change to that end. With Singleton and fellow top 10-ranked running back Kaytron Allen in tow, Franklin expected that element of Penn State’s offense to enjoy a big change.

“It’s funny because people talk about it’s almost like thunder and lightning and Nick is like this undersized scat back,” Franklin said upon Singleton signing with the program last December. “Nick is 215 pounds and has the ability to go 80 [yards]. Both of them, I don’t know if there is a better running back class signed in the country, and Nick being named Gatorade National Player of the Year is pretty cool. 

“We’ll see how it plays out. We’re super excited about getting them. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but should be exciting.”

Next steps

For the first time as a Nittany Lion on Saturday, Singleton brought that element to the field. 

In his debut at Purdue on Sept. 1, that wasn’t quite the case for any of Penn State’s running backs. Again finishing shy of 100 yards rushing for the team, the Nittany Lions’ longest run of the game was just 12 yards from Keyvone Lee.

Singleton’s best effort went for just six yards in the game. He finished with nine carries for 22 yards.

The inability to rip off any explosive runs, then, put something of a damper on the enthusiasm for progress that had been hoped from Penn State’s running game this offseason.

“We weren’t able to get any explosive runs, which is something that we’re committed to doing,” Franklin said after the game. “I think overall, I think the line battled. But too many many pressures, too many sacks, too many runs where the running backs didn’t have a situation to really get going and be open in space and make the safety miss. So we got to keep chipping away at that.”

Saturday, with Singleton’s carry, they took strides to that end.

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