Penn State Football: bold predictions for some of Nittany Lions’ top-rated freshmen

Penn State Football running back – Nicholas Singleton

Saquon Barkley, Miles Sanders, Journey Brown, and now, Nicholas Singleton?

We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, as Singleton has yet to even carry the ball for Penn State Football, but if all the hype about him is real, he could be just as good, and maybe even better than some of his predecessors. One thing is for sure, he certainly has the tools to do it.

With the Nittany Lions looking to improve upon what was one of the worst rushing attacks in the country last season, in part due to a lack of explosiveness from the ball-carriers, it won’t take much for Singleton to climb the depth chart and be one of the go-to backs right away.

Prediction:

Nicholas Singleton may not be the ‘starter’ for the first few games, meaning he won’t be the first back to take the field, but will still get plenty of carries in each game.

As the season goes along, and the number one rated back from the class of 2022 gets more comfortable at the collegiate level and begins to prove his worth, he will get more touches, similar to what TreVeyon Henderson, who was the top-rated back in the 2021 class, did at Ohio State last season.

Singleton will be excellent as a runner, averaging at least 5.5 yards per carry on the season, break the school’s freshman touchdown record of eight (set by Noah Cain in 2019), and also look great catching the ball out of the backfield. The former Gatorade National Player of the Year will do this enroute to winning another prestigious award, Big Ten Freshman of the Year.

This is the boldest of all of these bold predictions, but what fun is doing this if we’re not aiming high?

If Nicholas Singleton does go on to win Big Ten Freshman of the Year, he would be the first running back to win the award since Jonathan Taylor in 2017, and the first Nittany Lion to win it since Deion Barnes and Christian Hackenberg went back-to-back in 2012 and 2013.