Does Penn State Football have the best running back duo in the country?

Penn State Football landed a pair of highly rated running backs in the 2022 recruiting class, and so far this season, they’ve been as advertised.

Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton have reignited the Penn State rushing attack through their ‘thunder and lightning’ combination, and as two true freshmen, they’re only getting started.

On the season, Allen has carried the ball 108 times for 558 yards (5.2 yds/carry), while Singleton has carried it 112 times for 679 yards (6.1 yds/carry). Both have rushed for eight touchdowns this season, which is tied with Noah Cain for the most rushing touchdowns by a true freshman in Penn State Football history. Whoever scores next will break that record, though both will still surpass it comfortably.

These two are quickly becoming the best 1-2 punch at running back that this program has seen in a very long time, but how do they stack up against some of the other running back duos across college football?

Well, you don’t have to look far to find some of the nation’s best. Just in the Big Ten East alone, both Michigan and Ohio State each have a pair of excellent backs.

At Ohio State, Miyan Williams and TreVeyon Henderson are averaging 6.2 and 5.8 yards per carry respectively. Williams’ 12 touchdowns is also third in the Big Ten.

Up in Ann Arbor is what you could argue is the best backfield in America. Their go-to back–Blake Corum–is a Heisman contender averaging 6.0 yards per carry and leads the Big Ten with 16 touchdowns. His backup in Donovan Edwards is averaging 6.7 yards per rush (tied for first in the conference) and has also added four touchdowns on the season.

Another comparable duo within the conference is Braelon Allen and Isaac Guerendo at Wisconsin. Allen is averaging 5.8 yards per carry with 10 touchdowns, while Guerendo is averaging 6.7 yards per rush with five touchdowns. That duo is more one-sided, though, as Allen is the Badgers’ workhorse back with Guerendo having just 42 carries on the year thus far.

Outside the Big Ten, the Texas Longhorns have a darn good tandem led by one of the nation’s best backs: Bijan Robinson. He is averaging 5.9 yards per carry and has found the endzone 12 times, and his backup–Roschon Johnson–is averaging 6.3 yards per carry.

There’s certainly plenty of great running back duos across college football, and while it’s probably a stretch to say they have the best, there’s a few things that separate the tandem in the Nittany Lions’ running back room from the rest of the pack.

The first is that Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton are about as close to a 50/50 split in terms of carries as you’re going to see with the two being separated by just four carries on the season. Aside from Ohio State, all the other duos I mentioned above are more one-sided; they consist of a feature back who carries the load, but is backed up by another great running back who sees far fewer carries.

The second thing that separates the duo for Penn State Football from the others is what they have around them–or more specifically, in front of them.

While Penn State’s offensive line has certainly improved from a year ago, it’s still a work in progress and has struggled at times against better competition. You can’t exactly say the same about some of the other duos I talked about, such as the one from Michigan. Their numbers are better, but what would Allen and Singleton’s numbers look like had they been running behind the Michigan offensive line all season? We can only speculate what those stats might be–and this isn’t to say the Corum/Edwards duo isn’t a little better–but the gap in offensive line effectiveness is certainly worth mentioning.

The third and final (and perhaps also most impressive) thing that separates Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton from the rest is the fact they they’re both true freshmen. Of the other eight names I’ve mentioned in this article, not one is a true freshman.

So, while they may not be the best in the country yet, Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton are certainly one of the best duos of running backs in the sport that–as early as next year–could be the best.

Their running styles complement each other well, and they’ve been getting better and better as the season has progressed.

Give these two another offseason in the weight room, film room, and out on the practice field, and I’ll go out on record as saying that by the time they’re in their final year together in the program, they’ve got a chance to be the best running back duo in the sport since Nick Chubb and Sony Michel at Georgia back in 2017.