Penn State's run game is so bad, it's somehow become an afterthought

Penn State football's run game coming out of the era of Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen has been shocking. Though there's a plethora of problems surfacing in head coach Matt Campbell's first season in Happy Valley, the lack of preparation for the Big Ten has been an umbrella covering many of them.

Many players on the roster transferred over from Iowa State following Campbell, including running back Carson Hansen. The Nittany Lions (3-4, 0-4 Big Ten) also brought in Ohio State transfer James Peoples. These two combined with returning Cam Wallace and Quinton Martin Jr. created an offensive backfield that looked threatening on paper. Over fall camp, Campbell and Co. had nothing but positives to say about this room.

While living up to the Singleton and Allen standards was a lofty goal, the lack of production from this supposed four-headed monster is disappointing to say the least.

Penn State's run game is embarrassing, but it's not the offense's identity

Just like the rest of the team, non-conference play made the run game look much better than what it really was. The last time Penn State put up a 100-plus rushing yards performance was in Week 4 vs. Wisconsin with 119 yards. Peoples led the Nittany Lions in rushing yards with 67 on 14 carries. Martin and Hansen both had less than 15 net rushing yards on six and four carries, respectively.

Including this game vs. the Badgers, none of Penn State's running backs have had a run of 10 or more yards. That's 16 quarters of football. Over the last three games against Northwestern, USC, and Michigan, the Nittany Lions have averaged 2.2 yards per carry in each contest.

The explosiveness from the offensive backfield isn't there in the slightest.

Hansen is the only back who's had a game of 50-plus net yards on the ground in the last three games as well. Against the Wolverines, he had 51 yards and one rushing touchdown on 15 carries. Peoples had just 14 yards on five carries in Week 7.

The former Iowa State rusher also led the team in Week 5 and Week 6. He had 19 yards against the Wildcats and 28 yards against the Trojans.

This isn't enough production on the ground to compete in the Big Ten, but with so many flaws, the run game's flying under the radar a little bit. It's disappointing to not see any explosive plays come out of the backfield, but it's not something that needs immediate fixing. Last season, the run was Penn State's offensive identity, so that needed to get going immediately once Terry Smith stepped in as interim head coach.

This year, the offensive line needs patching up, Rocco Becht needs to either step up his game or Campbell needs to give Alex Manske a chance under center, and the pass game has to drive this offense. Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser has been concerned with the pass game, clearly, as he's tried spreading the ball around to the wide receivers and tight ends in the absence of wideout Koby Howard. Focusing on fixing this element of the offense has taken up a lot of space and energy.

There's no clear identity on this team as a whole and the offense is too inconsistent to try and lean into a dead run game that's averaged 2.2 yards per carry over the last three games.

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