Does Penn State Football need to find another Running Back?
Solution for the rest of 2022
Three scholarship running backs is just not going to cut it over the grind of a Big Ten schedule.
Remember 2020? The Nittany Lions were down their top two backs just minutes into the start of that season. That cannot happen again.
The number of solutions to this problem are slim in season. Trades don’t exist in college football and any player that transfers in right now will not be eligible. James Franklin and his staff need to look internally to fix this issue.
One scenario is that Penn State takes a young linebacker or defensive back or wide receiver, who is currently not seeing much playing time and start working them in with the running backs. Obviously, Penn State may be trying to preserve the redshirt of some of these players, but they should be prepared to go in an emergency situation.
Here’s a couple example candidates:
Freshman safety Mehki Flowers hasn’t seen any action so far in 2022, but he was a standout on both sides of the ball in high school. While he played mostly wide receiver in high school, the 6-foot, 192-pound Flowers has the athleticism to play the position. The problem is, as 192 pounds, he may be a little light to handle Big Ten play as a running back.
Someone built a little better to fill in may be redshirt freshman linebacker Jamari Buddin. Listed at 6-foot-2 and 216 pounds, Buddin hasn’t see too much action at linebacker so far this year. The emergence of true freshman Abdul Carter seems to have played a role in that. Buddin received high marks coming out of high school for his speed and physicality. Buddin saw time at both wide receiver and tight end in high school, but most of his focus was on defense.
While preparing one of these two for the emergency role may not be a bad idea, giving walk on Tank Smith more reps in practice may be the wiser thing to do. Smith started Fall camp as RB6 and is now all the way up to RB4, that is a huge difference.
Smith has seen action before, usually in blowouts over the past couple of seasons. In his career, Smith has seven carries for 26 yards. Preparing him for meaningful play should be the top priority, with finding an emergency running back being second.