Nick Singleton wrangles first B1G honor in Penn State career
Nick Singleton is on the board. Following a breakout debut at Beaver Stadium on Saturday, Penn State’s true freshman running back earned his first Big Ten honor for the performance.
Announced Monday morning, Singleton is the Big Ten Football Freshman of the Week. He finished with 179 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 carries against Ohio.
The former On3 Consensus five-star in the Class of 2022, and Gatorade High School Football Player of the Year, the award is Singleton’s first as a Nittany Lion.
Nick Singleton debut performance
Singleton’s path to his first conference honor had everything to do with his explosive showing against the Bobcats. The only Nittany Lion running back to eclipse 100 yards rushing in the past 17 games for the program, the Shillington, Pa., product did so by ripping off chunk runs with ease.
Taking his first carry 11 yards, Singleton followed the effort with a dazzling 70-yard touchdown run. The sweep to the sideline, cutback, and burst up the field delivered a 14-0 advantage to Penn State late in the first quarter.
“He’s got such good speed that, maybe in years past when the read would be cloudy and you’d want to bounce it, we didn’t always have the speed to get to the edge like he does,” head coach James Franklin said. “And he showed the ability to do that. A run that may typically be three or four yards has a chance to be 80 with him.”
It wouldn’t be his last.
Picking up a 48-yard carry on his first touch of the second half, Singleton topped the 100-yard threshold. And while the possession wouldn’t yield points for the Nittany Lions, he wasn’t done.
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Wrapping up his afternoon with a 44-yard touchdown carry late in the third quarter, Singleton gave Penn State a 40-7 advantage. He’d spend the rest of the game on the sideline, content to stay healthy and look ahead to the Nittany Lions’ showdown with Auburn this Saturday.
Next steps
Whether or not Singleton is Penn State’s first running back on the field, a distinction held by junior Keyvone Lee in each of the first two weeks, is something Franklin wouldn’t yet commit to after the game.
“I got a ton of confidence in all three of those guys, really all four of those guys, excuse me. [Devyn Ford] has been phenomenal in the things that we’ve asked him to do as well,” Franklin said. “Obviously, Nick breaking off those big runs was needed. There’s no doubt about it.
“We’ll watch the film and see what makes sense for us moving forward, but today, our rotation was similar to how we said it was going to be, 1-1-1 and then if somebody got hot, we would go with it.”
