Penn State Football Commit Nick Singleton Joins Elite Company

Penn State Football commit Nick Singleton continues to collect accolades on the eve of the early signing period getting underway 

Penn State football commit, running back Nick Singleton, received a huge honor on Tuesday when he was named the Gatorade National Football Player of the Year.

This national honor comes just one day before the 5-star running back will officially become a Nittany Lion, with the early National Signing Day on Wednesday.

Gatorade selects one player from each state, and the District of Columbia, as that state’s player of the year, from there, a national player of the year is selected from the 51 finalists.

At the end of the 2021-22 school year, Singleton will be in the running for the male Athlete of the Year, in which he will go against the national basketball, baseball, soccer, cross country, and track player of the year.

Gatorade has given out the award every year since 1986, past winners include: Jeff George (1986), Emmitt Smith (1987), Peyton Manning (1994), Joe Mauer (2001, later played in MLB), Kyler Murray (2014) and Tate Martell (2016).

Singleton is the third Pennsylvanian to take home the honor, joining Curtis Bray (1988) from Monroeville and Ron Powlus (1993) from Berwick. He is the first Penn Stater to win the award.

Singleton committed to Penn State on July 6 and since then has had a steady rise up the recruiting rankings. Thanks to a monster senior season in which he carried the ball 165 times for 2,049 yards (Yes, that’s a 12.4 average) and 41 touchdowns, he also caught four passes for 98 yards and two touchdowns. Those video-game-like numbers helped Singleton rise to the No. 1 running back spot in the 247 Sports ranking and the No.4 running back in the composite. 

On Wednesday, Singleton will be apart of one of the best offensive recruiting hauls that James Franklin has ever signed at Penn State and the running back from Governor Mifflin High School is a big reason why.