Even in a lopsided Week 2 win over Temple, redshirt sophomore running back Quinton Martin Jr. didn’t play a single snap for Penn State. After a week of questions about his unexpected benching, Martin got a chance in the first half of the Nittany Lions 55-13 Week 3 win over Buffalo and made the most of it.
On his second carry of the day, Martin broke multiple tackles en route to a 61-yard gain. It was the explosiveness he showed in the 2025 Pinstripe Bowl win over Clemson, a performance much of the fanbase latched onto and the reason most assumed he would be a fixture in the backfield, even after head coach Matt Campbell brought Carson Hansen with him from Iowa State and added former Buckeye James Peoples.
Then, Martin finished the game with exactly 100 yards on 10 carries, averaging 4.3 yards on his other nine carries, exactly in line with Hansen’s season average. Martin’s performance assured him touches in Big Ten play, but it will not have him usurping Hansen and Peoples as RB1.
The reality is, Penn State has four good running backs, including Cam Wallace, but no great ones. It can still have a good run game, but it will have to do it by committee.
Taylor Mouser and Savion Huggins need to ride the hot hand
After struggling to move the ball on the ground for two weeks, the Nittany Lions ran for 269 yards against Buffalo, averaging 7.8 yards per attempt. A group that had just one 15+ yard carry coming in (a 16-yard run) had five such runs, including two that went for more than 50 yards courtesy of Martin and Wallace.
Aside from Wallace, who was primarily playing alongside backups late into the second half, Penn State’s three other running backs had a success rate of 50% or better. That’s exactly the performance Taylor Mouser’s unit needed, but it came against Buffalo, which appears to be a MAC bottom-feeder this year and missed a bowl in 2025, so it’s hard to know if it will translate against Wisconsin in Week 4.
What should translate, or be transposed by Mouser and running back coach Savion Huggins, though, is the usage of that backfield, splitting the snaps three ways between Hansen, Peoples, and Martin before garbage time.
Hansen is Penn State's best back running between the tackles, Peoples is the best in the passing game and a pass protector, and Martin seemingly has the most breakaway ability. All three, however, are capable of playing three downs and are physical enough to be chain-movers in short yardage.
So, while each can have a dedicated role, Mouser and Huggins have the opportunity to ride the hot hand this season and keep all three of their backs (or four if you include Wallace) fresh. That obviously carries some risk if none are able to get into a rhythm with a limited workload each week, but until one of them separates themselves from the pack, it’s really the only way to proceed.
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