Penn State Football: Saquon Barkley will be missed, but the Nittany Lions will be fine at running back

Penn State football still has talent at running back despite losing Saquon Barkley.

With the decision of running back Saquon Barkley to leave school early and head to the NFL Penn State will enter into next season without the services of one of the best players in school history. While the situation seems unfortunate, there’s not much to fret about. Fortunately, the Nittany Lions have talent on the depth chart behind Barkley that will assure the Nittany Lions will be set at the running back position for the future.

Replacing Barkley certainly won’t be easy, but head coach James Franklin has done an excellent job of stocking the running back stable.

The obvious choice to replace Barkley for next season is Miles Sanders. The former four-star recruit was one of the most sought after players during his college recruiting cycle.

Sanders hasn’t seen much opportunity over his first two seasons serving as Barkley’s backup, but that will certainly change in 2018. He received just 31 carries over the last season but ran for 191 yards and two touchdowns. An average of 6.2 yards per carry is nothing to scoff at.

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With Barkley seeing limited reps in the Fiesta Bowl Sanders took over as the team’s leading kick returner — a role that he served in for much of last season. He returned four kicks for 56 yards against Washington. Sanders managed just 15 yards on his six carries as a running back in the game, but he did add a touchdown.

Even though he didn’t see a ton of action over his first two seasons in Happy Valley, Sanders appears to be fully capable of taking over the lead rushing duties for the Nittany Lions.

Behind Sanders on the roster is veteran Mark Allen. He has just 66 career carries for 254 yards and two touchdowns, but will be an important veteran presence next year. Senior Johnathan Thomas will also be in the mix.

Sanders will get all of the attention heading into the new season, but there will be two particular newcomers ready to make some noise.

Redshirt freshman Journey Brown is one of the most interesting players on the roster. Despite being one of the fastest high school players in the nation he wasn’t heavily recruited. He was a standout player at Meadville High School and set a Pennsylvania high school single-game record in 2015 when he piled up an incredible 722 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns in a big win over DuBois.

Brown was given a red shirt in 2017 in order to be given an extra year to develop. His unique talent and speed make him an intriguing player and one who could be used in a variety of ways.

Joining the Penn State running backs for 2018 will be five-star recruit Ricky Slade. Just like Sanders, Slade was the best available prospect at his position in his recruiting class. Slade is a tremendous talent who has an eight-touchdown performance to his name.

Look for Slade to come in and see playing time right away for the Nittany Lions.

Replacing a player like Saquon Barkley seems like a near-impossible task. He was a leader for the Nittany Lions both on and off the field. His 3,843 career rushing yards and 53 total touchdowns won’t be easy to replace.

However, the Nittany Lions appear to still be set at the running back position for years to come.

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