Penn State Football misses out on Deshaun Murrell | What’s next at RB

Penn State Football received some bad news Friday when 4-star running back Deshun Murrell announced he will be signing with UCLA.

Murrell was Penn State Football’s primary running back target down the stretch in the 2021 recruiting cycle. With him gone, the Nittany Lions do not have many options remaining.

All four of Penn State’s scholarship running backs, Keyvone Lee, Devyn Ford, Noah Cain and Caziah Holmes will return next season, but Cain will be coming off a major foot injury and Lee and Holmes will still be just sophomores.

The Nittany Lions have three courses of action they can take to help their running back situation in 2021 and the future.

The first option is to target one of the best running backs still unsigned in the 2021 class, Ke’Travion Hargrove.

Hargrove was a Louisiana Tech commit, but opened things up in the Summer when his recruitment took off, with offers flying in and a ratings bump. Penn State did offer him in June, so they’ve had a relationship for a while. The other main competition for him is Florida State and South Carolina, two schools that are not in the best shape right now. The main problem is distance, as he’s from Louisiana. He’s not going to sign until February, so there’s time to make a move here.

Another option is to hit the transfer portal. Andy Frank, director of player personal, said that the Nittany Lions may be more aggressive in the portal than years past.  A new name to the portal is former Baylor running back John Lovett. Lovett, a New Jersey native, received a Penn State offer during his recruitment in 2017, the year the Nittany Lions went with Journey Brown as their running back. In four seasons, Lovett rushed for 1,803 yards and 17 touchdowns. He wouldn’t be a long-term fix, as he’s just eligible for the 2021 season. He’s also not a game changer, but gives the Nittany Lions another reliable option.

If the Nittany Lions don’t get Hargrove, or any other 2021 running back, chances are that they go for two in 2022. Lovett won’t have any impact on this decision as he’s gone after 2021 no matter what, so even if would come to Penn State, this is still likely.

There are plenty of options in 2022, including Nicholas Singleton, Tevin White, George Pettaway and many others. With Penn State’s recruiting power at the running back position, thanks to position coach Ja’Juan Seider’ recruiting ability, and the play of former Penn State running backs, it shouldn’t be too hard for the Nittany Lions to get two high profile running backs. They’ve done it already in back to back years with Ford and Cain in 2019 and Lee and Holmes in 2020.