What Penn State Football signees are poised to make biggest impact in 2022?

Penn State Football running back – Nicholas Singleton

Along with the top-ranked quarterback in the country, James Franklin brought in the top-ranked running back in the country, Nicholas Singleton.

Singleton also won Gatorade National Player of the Year.

This should be another guy welcomed with open arms by Penn State Football fans, given the issues with the running game this past season.

Obviously, the offensive line was the primary issue, but having an uber-talented back can help cover some of those blemishes and use their athleticism to make something out of nothing, similar to what Saquon Barkley, Miles Sanders, and Journey Brown were able to do with offensive lines that were never that great.

Similar to the quarterback position, do not be frustrated if Singleton is not the first running back to take the field in the first game.

Barkley only got one carry in his first collegiate game, and by the middle of October in 2015 was the feature back. This past season at Ohio State, TreyVon Henderson, who was the number one running back in the 2021 class, did not see many carries early, but he continually got more and more carries as the season went on and by the end of the season was their go-to back and one of the best backs in the country.

It will also be good for him to not get worn down immediately. If he gets 20-25 touches per game right away, not only will he beat down later in the season, but he will also be more prone to overuse injuries later in his career after 3+ years of doing so.

Singleton enters a running back room that has plenty of experienced guys who have all shown some very good flashes to this point in their career, so he may start the season behind Noah Cain and/or Keyvone Lee on the depth chart, but don’t expect it to last for long.