Penn State Football: Replacing Sanders, McSorley ground production

With Miles Sanders departure for the NFL announced today, Penn State football has more rushing yards to replace than when Saquon Barkley left.

A 31-9, three-year run for Penn State football meant a resurgence for the program, but it also meant the NFL took notice of the talent Happy Valley boasts. Five underclassmen announced that they were headed for the draft over the last two days, which means It is next man up for the backfield.

One somewhat surprising player headed for the 2019 NFL Draft is junior running back and one-year starter Miles Sanders. His move to the NFL forces the team to replace more in the ground game than when Saquon Barkley left last year. Sanders rushed for 1,274 yards, as opposed to Barkley’s 1,271 yards in 2017. I’m by no means saying he’s a better back, because he isn’t. But, it’s just putting things in perspective of what Penn State is losing.

Add in three-year starting quarterback Trace McSorley’s graduation, and the Nittany Lions lost a combined 2,072 yards and 21 touchdowns on 5.3 yards per carry (sacks included) from this past year.

It’ll be tough to replace both of them, but if recent history has told us anything, running backs Ricky Slade and Journey Brown and quarterback Tommy Stevens can do this. Penn State’s recruiting has replaced one four-or-five star with another.

Next year, they’ll repeat that formula. Slade actually flashed his big-play potential, rushing for 257 yards and six touchdowns this year on only 45 carries. The true freshman played in some big moments too and proved the stage isn’t too much for him. Slade is another five-star recruit that has great balance and can accelerate once he breaks into the open field.

Brown was under recruited coming out of high school, but the former three-star recruit with a few Div. I offers has worked his way up the lineup. He doesn’t quite have the same production as Slade, but did well with the carries he did receive, rushing eight times for 44 yards and a touchdown.

Those two backs have the most experience and provide plenty of promise for next year along with two incoming four-star recruits in Devyn Ford and Noah Cain. There’s plenty of option for the running back spot. Penn State football doesn’t have anything to worry about, especially with a fifth-year senior QB in Stevens.

He’ll actually be the active leading rusher on the team with 506 yards and eight touchdowns on 6.7 yards per carry. He’ll give this rushing attack a well-studied zone read runner, when he decides not to hand off to any of the aforementioned players.

Penn State will be alright with all these players. What recent history has told us is that this offense is a finely-tuned, efficient machine. It’ll be successful in 2019.