Penn State football: James Franklin teases breakout year from Journey Brown

Penn State football head coach James Franklin sounds quite optimistic about Journey Brown’s upcoming season.

Penn State football’s backfield has become quite intriguing over the last few years. Obviously, Saquon Barkley put them on the map a few years back as he established himself as one of the best backs in the country. After he went to the 2018 NFL Draft and was selected second overall, a five-star prospect in Miles Sanders was set to take over.

Sanders’ rise to NCAA stardom took longer than expected, but he did quite a nice job during his Junior season, which happened to be his first year as the full-time starter. After rushing for 1,274 yards, and catching 24 passes, Sanders wrapped up the year with nine total touchdowns. While he could’ve benefitted from a senior season at Penn State, the Nittany Lions star didn’t want to wait.

He declared for the NFL Draft and became a second-round pick by the Philadelphia Eagles. That left the Lions with some question marks in the backfield. And although Ricky Slade is expected to take on the number one spot on the depth chart, that won’t guarantee him a large chunk of the workload coming out of the backfield. Instead, the Lions might take a different approach.

Backfield committees are becoming popular in the NFL, and NCAA teams aren’t hesitating to take a stab at the approach as well. As programs such as Penn State get their hands on some excellent prospects, why not try to use them all to the best of their ability? Sure, Ricky Slade proved to be a solid second back last year, but why not try to utilize all of the talents on board, rather than hand a majority of the workload to Slade?

Could another back be on the rise?

Penn State hasn’t come outright and declared that they would run with more of a committee approach, but the signs are there. And as Slade is the public consensus’s potential star of the backfield in 2019, head coach James Franklin anticipates a breakout season from one of the young backs, and it doesn’t happen to be Ricky Slade.

Although Sophomore running back Journey Brown found himself in some trouble this offseason, which resulted in a suspension, Franklin didn’t hold back from talking up Brown’s potential for 2019. The former three-star prospect clearly showed some definite signs of development throughout his few years here, as Franklin raved about Brown in Chicago this past weekend.

"“He’s one of those guys that, it would not surprise me if he had a breakout year,” Franklin said. “He has an unbelievable body, and he’s big, strong, and fast. He’s starting to play with the speed and athleticism that he has, and he’s just maturing and growing up.“He’s always been an unbelievable athlete, and he’s just more confident. I think he has a chance to have a really big year for us.”"

Considering that Lions’ running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider has yet to name a starter for the backfield this year, that just means there’s going to be one interesting battle to see who leads the trio of Slade, Brown, and Noah Cain this year.

While many assume that Slade’s past experience will gift him the number one spot, it sure sounds like Franklin pictures a different scenario in his head. That’s not to say Slade won’t succeed, but Brown will surely give him a run for his money this offseason.