Penn State Football: 3 players who will need to have a big day against Minnesota

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STATE COLLEGE, PA – SEPTEMBER 10: Nicholas Singleton #10 of the Penn State Nittany Lions avoids the attempted tackle of Ben Johnson #30 of the Ohio Bobcats to score a touchdown during the second half at Beaver Stadium on September 10, 2022 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /

RB Nick Singleton

Penn State football failed to do much of anything on offense last week, but the running backs really struggled.

The trio of Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen and Keyvone Lee carried the ball a combined 13 times for 41 yards. Now, Penn State being down by a lot in the second half factored into this, but it still wasn’t a great showing.

Minnesota is not an easy team to run on either. The Gophers allow just 104.5 rushing yards per game. This is an impressive number, but Illinois was able to gain 220 yards on the ground against Minnesota last week. So far, the Illini are really the only team to have any success running against Minnesota.

The Nittany Lions need to try to replicate the Illini’s success and the best man to do that may be Singleton. The speedy freshman has that home-run speed that change a game in the blink of an eye.

Despite giving up so many rushing yards to Illinois, Minnesota did for the most part avoid the big play. The longest run given up was 23 yards. Penn State may not be able to run the ball 54 times like Illinois did, so it will be important for Singleton to get those big chunk plays.

The Nittany Lions need to start sustaining drives and the best way to do that is with a strong run game. If Singleton fires off a few big runs early, the Minnesota defense will be on its toes and that’s when the Nittany Lions can strike through the air.

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