Penn State might be known as Linebacker U, but the Nittany Lions have had plenty of great running backs come through Happy Valley. Two, D.J. Dozier and Ki-Jana Carter have even been included on the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 ballot. Dozier and Carter have a chance to join the elite group of three former Penn State running backs in the hall.
The tradition even dates back to the early years of Joe Paterno’s tenure with players like Franco Harris coming through the program. Harris played at Penn State from 1969-71, racking up 2,002 rushing yards, but is better known for his exploits in professional football as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
While Harris wasn’t a dominant force at Penn State, he along with one particular teammate who does crack the top 10, helped to set the tone for the Joe Paterno era, one defined, at least on the field, by a physical mentality on both sides of the ball.
Not many programs could fathom leaving a player like Harris off a top 10, but for Penn State, it’s a fairly obvious conclusion considering the greatness routinely displayed at the position. Even after Saquon Barkley’s departure, Franklin has cycled through Miles Sanders, Journey Brown, and now Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen are preparing for their third year as one of the best backfield duos in the country.
Even with another great year from the Lawn Boyz, this list will be nearly impossible to crack.
While Evan Royster is the all-time leading rusher in Penn State history with three years of over 1,000 yards on the ground, his lack of a standout season slots him at No. 10. Royster nearly eclipsed 4,000 career rushing yards, ending his time at Penn State with 2,932 and 29 touchdowns, but he was never named a consensus All-American or given Heisman Trophy consideration.
Royster was an excellent running back, but more than anything he was a great compiler of stats who declined over his four-year career, averaging under 5.0 yards a carry in 2010 and posting the second-lowest yardage total of his career.
Curtis Enis needed just three seasons in Happy Valley to climb to No. 2 on the all-time rushing list, though he has since been bumped to No. 6. In 1997, Enis amassed 1,578 all-purpose yards and 20 touchdowns. He finished fifth in Heisman Trophy voting, was named an All-American, and became the fifth overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft.
For his career, Enis averaged an extremely efficient 5.8 yards per attempt and 8.9 yards per reception. A knee injury broke his NFL career to a premature end in 2001.
As D.J. Dozier’s backup in 1986, Thomas produced a healthy 504 yards on 60 carries, an average of 8.4 yards per carry. As the workhorse the next season with Dozier in the NFL, Thomas’s efficiency understandably dropped, but he was still one of the most effective running backs in the country.
Thomas ran for 1,414 yards in 1987 and racked up 1,341 yards on the ground in 1989 after missing 1988 with a knee injury. His numbers coming off reconstructive knee surgery were remarkable and after an MVP performance at the Senior Bowl before the NFL Draft, Thomas was the No. 2 overall pick to the New York Jets.
Thomas is fifth all-time in rushing yards at Penn State, but the team’s lack of success, going 21-13-1 in the three years following the 1986 national title has hurt his status as a memorably great Nittany Lion running back.
D.J. Dozier is on the ballot for the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2025 and for good reason. While he was never dominant in a given year, Dozier was rock-steady at Penn State, leading the Nittany Lions in rushing for all four seasons of his career.
Despite only breaking 1,000 yards rushing in a season as a freshman and never again, Dozier amassed 3,227 yards on the ground. In Penn State’s 12-0 1986 National Championship season, Dozier was a consensus First-Team All-American.
Dozier was drafted 14th overall by the Minnesota Vikings in the 1987 NFL Draft and in 1992 after retiring from the NFL, played 25 games for the New York Mets at 26 years old.
It’s not easy to keep Franco Harris off the football field, but that’s how good Lydell Mitchell was at Penn State. Mitchell was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004 largely because of his incredible 1971 season.
In ‘71, Mitchell ran for 1,567 yards and 26 touchdowns with three more scores and 154 additional yards through the air. He led the Nittany Lions to an 11-1 record and a Cotton Bowl victory. His 38 career rushing touchdowns at Penn State were the most in program history until Saquon Barkley nabbed the record in 2017.
From 1980-82, Curt Warner put together three straight seasons with over 1,000 all-purpose yards for the Nittany Lions. Over that stretch, the team went a staggering 31-5 and claimed the 1982 national championship.
In the title season, Warner went for 1,041 yards on the ground with eight rushing touchdowns and five more through the air. Warner was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame Class of 2009. He was Penn State’s all-time leading rusher until Evan Royster unseated him in 2010. Saquon Barkley has also since passed Warner who sits in third.
Larry Johnson spent his first three seasons at Penn State buried on the depth chart. In 2001 as a junior, he ran for an efficient 337 yards on just 71 carries, but Eric McCoo and Zack Mills both had more attempts. Finally in 2002 as a senior, Johnson took the lion’s share of the carries and dominated college football.
Johnson ran for 2,087 yards and 20 touchdowns on just 271 attempts, an average of 7.7 yards per carry, yet he didn’t win the Heisman Trophy. Johnson was a First-Team All-American in 2002 and became a first-round pick of the Kansas City Chiefs in the spring of 2003.
While it was just one elite season, Johnson was so dominant that he deserves a spot in the top 4 of all-time Penn State running backs. He broke the Penn State single-game rushing record four times that year with a 257-yard day against Northwestern, a 279-yard performance against Illinois, another 279 yards on just 19 carries against Michigan State, and a staggering 327 yards at Indiana.
Ki-Jana Carter only ranks 10th on the all-time Penn State rushing yards list and is 13th in all-purpose yards, but his 1994 season was so legendary that he jumps right up to the top of this list.
Carter ran for 1,026 yards in 1993, but the next year, he led Penn State to a 12-0 record and a Rose Bowl win by averaging 7.8 yards per carry, racking up 1,539 yards and 23 touchdowns on the ground. Carter was only beaten out by Colorado’s Rashaan Salaam, who ran for over 2,000 yards in 1994, for the Heisman Trophy.
Carter’s greatest moment came in that Rose Bowl against Oregon, taking a pitch on the first play of the game 83 yards for a touchdown. The first-team All-American finished the contest with 156 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries in a 38-20 Penn State victory.
While he didn’t win the Heisman, the NFL thought so highly of Carter that he was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick by the Cincinnati Bengals in 1995, but injuries derailed his NFL career.
Throughout its illustrious history, Penn State has had just one Heisman Trophy winner, John Cappelletti in 1973. That season, Cappelletti ran for 1,522 yards and 17 touchdowns, leading the Nittany Lions to a 12-0 record and Orange Bowl victory in Joe Paterno’s eighth season. Despite going undefeated, Penn State finished fifth in the AP Poll.
Cappelletti played just two years of offense for the Nittany Lions after beginning his career playing defensive back in 1970-71. He immediately found a home in the backfield, rushing for 1,117 yards and 12 touchdowns as a junior in 1972. Had he played on the offensive side for his entire career, Cappelletti may have even claimed the No. 1 spot on this list, ahead of Saquon Barkley.
Saquon Barkley isn’t the all-time leading rusher in Penn State history, that distinction belongs to Evan Royster, but it took Royster 48 games to amass his 3,923 yards while Barkley racked up 3,843 in 10 fewer contests. Barkley, on top of averaging 5.7 yards per carry, had the added element of being an elite pass-catcher, ranking 18th in Penn State history in receptions and first in all-purpose yards.
At his peak, Barkley was the most dynamic, not just in college football, but in all of football. Destroying defenses with his generational athleticism and eventually getting drafted No. 2 overall in 2018, he is possibly the last running back in history who will be selected that high.
Players like Trace McSorley, Chris Godwin, and Mike Gesicki helped to reestablish Penn State as a national powerhouse after the Joe Paterno era but it was Barkley most of all who defined the James Franklin era of Penn State football and led the Nittany Lions back to the 2016 Big Ten title.