Penn State football beat Purdue on Saturday in a Week 9, 31-17 victory at home at Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions (4-4, 1-4 Big Ten) have searched for their first conference win all season. While it took longer than they hope and until after the bye week to do so, it's a performance they can look to build upon in this back half of the 2026 season.
Part of that performance was the run game. Penn State's run has not met the standard and hasn't been anywhere close to what Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen accomplished together the last four seasons. On Saturday, head coach Matt Campbell put his Iowa State loyalties aside and ticked up the snap count for running back Cam Wallace.
Senior Carson Hansen still saw the field (19 carries for 96 yards and one touchdown), but took on the backup role as Wallace ran for 135 yards and a score on 22 touches.
This new revamped backfield duo gave the run game the boost its needed all year long. Penn State rushed for 269 total yards and three touchdowns against the Boilermakers. Quarterback Rocco Becht threw for 175 yards and one score, completing 16-of-24 pass attempts. He was without receivers Koby Howard and Chase Sowell, and that was very evident. No pass catcher even eclipsed the 60-yard receiving mark on Saturday.
Without the run, the Nittany Lions' offense would have been in a lot of trouble.
One name that was absent, though, was running back James Peoples.
Penn State's run game is better with less James Peoples
Since Big Ten play started, Peoples' snap counts have slowly decreased week after week. Against Wisconsin, he played 36 snaps and had 14 carries for 67 yards. That was the most production out of the junior running back Penn State saw during conference play. At Northwestern, Peoples had eight carries for 13 yards and played 30 snaps. He dropped to 20 snaps vs. USC (seven carries, 10 yards) and 16 snaps at Michigan (five carries, 14 yards).
Coming out of the bye, the emergence of Wallace as the top back for this Nittany Lions offense meant Peoples saw even less action. He had just one singular snap vs. the Boilermakers and no touches.
When Campbell plucked Peoples out of the portal, the former Buckeye was expected to be part of this "four-headed backfield monster" and take a significant number of snaps alongside Hansen.
The run game has been practically invisible against Big Ten opponents up until Week 9. While Howard and Sowell won't be out indefinitely and are both considered "close" to returning, per Campbell in his postgame press conference, that doesn't mean the run game can just revert back to what it was and reload the pressure back on the pass.
If Wallace continues building on this performance, Peoples might wind up back in the Transfer Portal after the season. There's no reason to suddenly tick up his snap count and jeopardize the run game that powered Penn State's win over Purdue at a point in the season where Campbell must win.
That being said, the lack of game action he saw against the Boilermakers could have been a wake up call. If he sees more time on Saturday and has the production the Nittany Lions need, icing him out entirely isn't necessary. That doesn't mean one good performance should shift who Penn State relies on in the backfield, though. If anything, Peoples should take on a support role behind Wallace and Hansen.
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