Here’s why one Penn State assistant said, ‘This is as much Running Back U’
When Tyler Bowen glances just outside the door to Penn State’s meeting rooms, where a long list of past first-team All-Americans sits, the offensive recruiting coordinator can’t help but catch a glimpse of a running back.
There are 21 All-America running backs, after all, including 14 first-teamers. And after another strong recruiting effort Wednesday — especially at running back — that led Bowen to make a pretty strong statement.
“This is as much Running Back U as it is Linebacker U,” he said.
Bowen wasn’t alone in saying that Wednesday during the first day of the early signing period. After Penn State picked up its second top-10 running back prospect of the 2019 class in IMG Academy’s Noah Cain — making PSU one of just two programs in the nation to achieve the feat — fans around the country started using the hashtag #RBU to describe the blue-and-white while the talking heads on ESPN2 half-joked about the title.
“It’s becoming RBU there,” an ESPN2 analyst agreed, after both Cain and four-star RB Devyn Ford picked Penn State.
Running back has almost always been a position of strength at Penn State, but Bowen and the coaching staff have taken recruiting in Happy Valley to new heights. And nowhere is that more evident than running back.
In 2015, Penn State reeled in the nation’s No. 13 RB, an in-state prospect who out-played his ranking — Saquon Barkley. He developed into the type of player kids on the playground dream about being, and other prospects followed. Next came the nation’s No. 1 RB prospect in Miles Sanders (2016), then the country’s top all-purpose back recruit in Ricky Slade (2018) — and now, Wednesday, came a pair of top-10 RB prospects in Ford (No. 6) and Cain (No. 8).
“I do think once you have a guy like Saquon that’s such an exciting player to watch ... I think that has an impact,” head coach James Franklin said. “Because players sit there and they envision themselves doing something similar.”
Penn State’s staff said Wednesday that Barkley essentially sells himself. The Nittany Lions don’t have to bring him up in recruiting conversations. They don’t have to show the time he dodged half of USC’s defense, or his I-believe-I-can-fly hurdle against Illinois, or his film with the New York Giants. In fact, has an RB recruit ever not brought up Barkley by himself?
“No, probably not,” said Andy Frank, Penn State’s director of player personnel.
Barkley isn’t the sole reason for the Nittany Lions’ success at the position, of course. (“Obviously we were able to get Saquon before we had Saquon,” Franklin added.) It was good fortune that both of the top backs in two of the last three classes grew up in the Keystone State, but the Nittany Lions’ penchant for reeling in star-studded backs goes beyond that.
The staff’s personalities and chemistry with recruits is critical. But the system itself is also of paramount importance. Even Cain, a southerner who visited Happy Valley just twice, acknowledged that much.
“I saw the way they use the running backs, and the running back in their offense is the focal point,” Cain said on ESPN2, after saying he was a longtime Texas/LSU lean. “They’re building something special up there.”
No other program in the nation has earned commitments from a top-10 running back over the last two years outside of Penn State. Mighty Alabama landed the top prospect this year (Trey Sanders) but No. 27 last year; Ohio State grabbed two in 2018 but none in 2019, according to 247 Sports’ composite rankings.
Barkley may have provided a spark, but Penn State’s coaching staff has turned that into a raging fire of recruiting interest. PSU is becoming a destination school for running backs.
“Not surprised in any way, shape or form,” Bowen said. “I’ve been a part of this offensive system for a while, dating back to Fordham. The guy we had at Fordham, Chase Edmonds, is scoring touchdowns in the NFL right now for the Arizona Cardinals. And look at what Saquon did and then, boom, there comes Miles and the success we’ve had there. You couple that with (running backs coach) JaJuan Seider and the success he’s had developing running backs at different schools.
“And this is as much Running Back U as anything else.”
This story was originally published December 19, 2018 at 7:06 PM.