Penn State football RB Noah Cain could see a depth chart promotion
On Saturday, Penn State football freshman running back Noah Cain once again emerged as the best rusher out of the pack against Purdue.
Every week, the media feels the need to ask Penn State football head coach James Franklin the same question. “When will we find out who the feature running back will be?” Ever since the start of the year, Penn State has rolled with a four-man committee for their backfield.
When it comes to the depth chart, everybody is listed in a specific order, but each name has ‘Or’ next to it because Penn State could literally choose anybody to trot out on the field for a series. At this point, not much has changed with the way the running backs are handled.
Although Ricky Slade did get jumped for the number one spot by Journey Brown, Franklin still stays true to using the mix of running backs on game day. On Saturday, the Lions started Journey Brown for the second week in a row.
However, Brown didn’t lead the team in carries. And neither did Ricky Slade, who is second on the depth chart. Instead, freshman running back Noah Cain obtained the most attempts, and he made the most out of it by averaging nearly nine yards-per-carry — and no other running back on board came close to out-rushing Cain, who had a great game.
Saturday’s game against Purdue wasn’t the only time Cain proved he might be worthy of more and more rushes out of the backfield, either. A few weeks ago, against Pittsburgh, Cain established himself as one of the more consistent and reliable running backs on the squad. Now at this point, everybody is wondering — is it finally time for Franklin to change it up and use a feature back?
Franklin sticks to his guns… For now
After the game, to no surprise, Franklin had to address the running back situation once again. And still, there are no plans of eliminating the four-man rotation even after seeing Cain’s performance live and direct. However, a promotion on the depth chart could be in order for the freshman.
“Journey [Brown] had a couple of weeks where he did some good things, so he moved to the top of the depth chart,” Franklin said during his post-game press conference on Saturday. “Obviously, after today, you can make some arguments that maybe that’s Noah [Cain] now moving to the top of the depth chart.”
Next. 3 Nittany Lions that shined against Purdue. dark
Franklin used it as a hypothetical situation and wouldn’t confirm if Noah gets the number one spot or not — but it does seem like some sort of promotion is inevitable at this point. Right now, Cain has outplayed both, Devyn Ford and Ricky Slade. Even if Cain doesn’t move all the way up to number one, there’s still a good chance he gets promoted this week regardless.