Penn State stars Kaytron Allen, Nick Singleton build case as college football's best running back tandem (2024)

About an hour after they became the first Penn State pairto surpass 2,000 career yards while playing together since Franco Harris and Lydell Mitchell (1971), coach James Franklin emphasized theimportance of running backs Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton. Those junior had just combined for 221 of the Nittany Lions' 374 total yards (59 percent) and two touchdowns during a 21-7 win over top-25 foe Illinois.

"I don't know if there's a better combination of running backs in the country," Franklin said.

Minutes later, Allen attempted to eliminate any potential confusion on that subject.

"We're the best duo in the country, for sure," Allen said. "It's the way we love the game. Nobody loves the game more than us two."

A few feet away, inside the Beaver Stadium media room, Singleton explainedhe's never doubted their status atop the pecking order of college football's positional one-two punches.

"I've been knowing that," Singleton said. "It's the type of players we are. We always feed off each other. You saw it (against Illinois) with the type of game we played."

Singleton produced gains of 14 (rushing) and 16 (receiving) on Penn State's opening touchdown possession, which responded to an early Illinois score, and finished with 119 yards on 18 touches, including a four-yard run that pushed PSU ahead for good.

His signature play was a tone-setter during that aforementioned third-quarter TD drive. On 3rd-and-7, from the PSU 47-yard line, he buried a defensive end with a block, then caught a pass and trucked a linebacker to move the chains.

It's the kind of moment that would fire up any team regardless of the player pulling it off. But when a star running back doesthat damage, it sends a different message, which Penn State offensive tackle Anthony Donkoh — the man with the best view of that play— described Wednesday.

"We're not here to mess around," Donkoh said. "We're here to deliver a blow to whoever is in front of us. He did that, and then proceeded to go and run the other guy over. That just shows we have no fear of anybody."

And, as usual, the success of one Nittany Lions running back motivated another.

"Watching my brother do that, it just makes me want to run harder, go harder," Allen said. "I just fed off of Nick."

Allen (102 yards on 18 carries) opened the next possession with gains of six and 13 yards. On the following drive that he was the featured back, starting with 5:50 left in the fourth quarter, Allenpicked up two first downs before putting the game on ice with a five-yard touchdown run and celebrating with an increasingly signature "kick down the door" celebration that his teammates joined.

"You can ask everybody on the team. Our team feeds off those guys," Penn State running backs coach Ja'Juan Seider said on Thursday.

Seider has known both players since they were high school underclassmen, and welcomed them to campus as freshmen in January 2022. By the end of thatinitial season together, Singleton was named Big Ten freshman of the year and Allen was a two-time conference freshman of the week.

"Those two kids, when they got herein (2022), when we got into spring ball, made our team at Penn State a better team," Seider said. "We became a physical team the day we stepped foot on pads in spring ball because the way they practice, the way they run behind their pads. They made our defense tougher because now I have to tackle these dudes every day."

Two years and several accolades later, that remains the case.

"They practice the way they play," Seider said. "They don't take shortcuts. They're pissed off if we're in practice and they're not touching the ball. I've never been around kids with an old school mentality where you love football so much, you don't want to miss anything, and that's the thing that makes it special when you've got great players."

Through four contests, Allen and Singleton each own 53 carries. Singleton has gained 408 rushing yards (7.7 average) with three touchdowns and an additional two receiving scores. Allen has totaled 289 rushing yards (5.5 average) and two touchdowns.

Individually, that production doesn't place either among the country's premier statistical producers. Collectively, they're accounting for nearly 180 rushing yards per game while keeping each other fresh.

"(They're) the two most consistent guys that are playing together," Seider said. "We can combine their stats and say, 'That's one guy.' You know what I mean? ... There's no drop off. And pick your poison — who you want to defend on each moment of the play?"

Singleton described an embrace of that workload balance.

"When me and Kaytron are on the field, there ain't no downfall between each other, there ain't no drop off," Singleton said. "So we're still doing the same production, and plus we're staying healthy at the same time, too, which is most important because it's a long season. And we just have a great relationship. We're not selfish, we're always having fun, and just being your brother's keeper."

Thecurrentstate of college football has made it easier than ever for players to pursue a larger piece of the pie, whether that be offensive touches, NIL paydays or individual brand recognition. Despite that landscape, Penn Staterecruitstop running backprospects with a vision for shared responsibilities, which Allen and Singleton have exemplified.

"We're selling it on you don't want to be the back that in your college experience, you carried it 800 times, and people are concerned about how much wear and tear you have on you and what do you have left," Franklin said on Wednesday. "I think sometimes it creates a management during games where they want more touches. But in the the big picture, out of the emotion of a game, I think both of them would sign up for it again, and obviously we would."

Singleton also referenced the lack of "wear and tear" as a positive this week. You can expect NFL scouts to feel similarly.

"I think there's times, maybe as freshmen, where either they don't understand it, or sometimes the parents don't understand it," Franklin said. "But I think after some time and some seasoning, when they all look back on it, they'll all see the value in it."

Discussions on the long-term football outlook for Allen and Singleton await, but Nittany Lions offensive guard Vega Ioane already feels like he's paving paths for pros.

"Those boys are NFL guys," Ioane said after the Illinois game. "We love that in the backfield. For us as an O-line, we hype ourselves up for them."

No one has enjoyed the show more than Seider, who encouraged folks to stay tuned.

"I get the best seat in the house," he said. "I get to see these kids progress over the last couple years, and they're just steady getting better and better as the season goes on, as the weeks go on. And I still think we still haven't seen their best yet, which is scary."

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Penn State stars Kaytron Allen, Nick Singleton build case as college football's best running back tandem (2024)
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