Penn State’s running backs room is already crowded, and the standard in that room is about as high as it gets.
That was the message when several former Nittany Lions came back to campus in the spring as part of head coach Matt Campbell’s alumni outreach program. For the backs on the roster, the conversation kept circling back to one thing: legacy.
Ki-Jana Carter, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen all delivered the same basic advice to the current group - don’t try to live in somebody else’s shadow.
“Ki-Jana Carter said this to the players when they came in: ‘Yeah, I went No. 1 overall, but you've got to create your own legacy,’” Penn State running backs coach Savon Huggins said. “I think that was one of the best things that he said.
[He] was like, ‘Yes, I've done what I’ve done, but I want y'all to create your own legacy. Don't follow mine.
My journey was my journey. Create your own legacy.’
“Kaytron has shared that, and Nick has shared that, and I think that allows these guys to be their own best version of themselves.”
That idea matters in a room where snaps won’t be handed out easily. Carson Hansen, James Peoples and Quinton Martin Jr. are all battling for touches, and if Cam Wallace makes the push it appears he can make, the backfield gets even tighter.
The challenge is obvious: Penn State’s running back history is loaded.
Carter is headed into the College Football Hall of Fame this year after going No. 1 overall in the 1995 NFL Draft. Saquon Barkley, taken No. 2 overall in 2018, has piled up a Super Bowl title, NFL Offensive Player of the Year, first-team All-Pro honors and AP Offensive Rookie of the Year.
Singleton and Allen are in the record book too, with Singleton as Penn State’s all-time leader in total touchdowns and Allen as the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards. They also became the eighth pair of Penn State running backs selected in the same draft in school history.
For Huggins, the spring visits helped make that history feel more immediate for the current players.
“Everybody knows about Saquon Barkley, but there's someone that went higher than him, right [Ki-Jana Carter]?” Huggins said.
“Blair Thomas and D.J. Dozier [also were selected high].
I think when Coach Campbell brought all these different alumni back in the spring, [it] helped these players understand the magnitude of how important it is to carry the ball at Penn State.
“And then on top of that, I think me explaining to them that the decisions that we make, everybody's watching you. … So you want to help them acknowledge that, but you don't also want them to be thinking about that as they go about their day-to-day.”
Huggins said he and the staff keep leaning into that history, even working former Penn State backs into presentations from time to time so the current group can see what the position has looked like here before them.
Offensive coordinator Taylor Mouser shares the same approach, and he framed the job in blunt terms.
“The standards there, playing running back at Penn State, [are] different,” Mouser said. “You take a play off, or you don't run hard, you're embarrassing a legacy of running backs that played here for a long time.
And that was my challenge to them. It's different from most positions at most schools.
You'd better bring your lunch pail every single day. I told those guys, the running back sets the tone for this offense.
So you better run hard every single time, and those guys do.”
Martin said the group understands exactly what’s on the line whenever it takes the field. He called the legacy piece something the backs hear about constantly, and said it pushes them to work harder “each and every day.”
Wallace’s perspective adds another layer. He has spent time around Singleton and Allen, two of the best backs this program has produced, so the standard isn’t abstract to him. He’s seen it up close.
Still, Martin said the focus stays on what this group can become on its own.
“We're just gonna go out there and play our own game,” Martin said. “We all individually have our own stories, and we're gonna go out there and prove ourselves.”
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