Depth chart breakdown: Here’s where Penn State football stands at running back in 2021
Penn State will have plenty of depth next to starting quarterback Sean Clifford this season. The Nittany Lions have several talented running backs who should prove to be reliable, and each one of them has plenty of upside.
Let’s take a look at where the position stands heading into the 2021 season.
Projected starter
Junior Noah Cain
There might not be a deeper position on the Penn State depth chart than running back. At least three players on the roster could start this season and that number could stretch to four. Noah Cain — who barely played last season due to a foot injury — should be the front runner to take the reins because he’s a proven entity and has shown the ability to carry the main workload.
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This analysis is based off of watching games live, 20+ hours of film study and watching Penn State’s two open spring practices.
Cain is an old-school runner at his core. He’s a big, physical bruiser who makes opponents fearful in the open field and can get through defenders near the line of scrimmage. He runs with power and breaks arm tackles by defenders, making him difficult to bring down. The strongest element of his game will continue to be his strength — and therefore his ability in short yardage situations — but he will need to improve elsewhere to solidify his spot atop the loaded depth chart.
His pass-catching ability is fine, and he showed improvement as a pass blocker as a freshman, but those areas are still the easiest paths for him to improve. He’s never going to be a big-play running back because he doesn’t have elite speed, but he can turn the tide of a game with his physicality.
Of course, the biggest question mark will be his health. He struggled with injuries as a freshman, then suffered a foot injury on the first play of his sophomore season that sidelined him for the entire year. His ability to recover from that injury — he didn’t participate in either open spring practice in a full capacity, though he did do work with strength coach Dwight Galt — will dictate if he can maintain his hold atop the roster.
Given that he was doing some work in the spring, and Penn State head coach James Franklin previously mentioned that he could be ready to go by the end of spring ball, there isn’t much reason to believe he won’t be good to go this fall. If that’s the case, he’ll just have to show improvement on his freshman campaign that saw him run for 443 yards and eight touchdowns on only 84 carries.
It’s unlikely any running back will pull away completely from the pack this year — especially because the team likes to rotate bodies at the position — but Cain should finish with the most carries on the team.
Key backups
Senior John Lovett and sophomore Keyvone Lee
There are two key backups to Cain — and reasonably could be four. John Lovett and Keyvone Lee get the nod here because they’re the most direct contrasts among the backups and could provide different elements to the team’s rushing attack.
Lovett is a one-cut runner and should be the primary big play threat out of the backfield for Penn State. He has the best speed of any runner for the Nittany Lions and showed it in 2018 and 2019 at Baylor, breaking off big runs with his strength and explosiveness in the open field. That production tailed off in 2020 under a new regime at Baylor and led to his worst statistical season of his college career, averaging less than three yards per carry after averaging at least 4.4 in each of the previous three seasons.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him revert to his previous form this coming season. That being said, Devyn Ford, who is one of the other two backups in contention for snaps, could take the role back as the team’s explosive running back if Lovett fails to find his rhythm again. Ford wasn’t able to take hold of the backfield when he was given the primary role last year, but will have a chance to compete for his fair share of snaps in 2021.
Lee is more similar to Cain than he is to Lovett and would likely be the more direct replacement for the starter if he can’t hold up due to injury. Like Cain, Lee does most of his work between the tackles, using his physicality and size to break tackles. That being said, Lee’s listed weight is down about 15 pounds to 220 pounds this year. It remains to be seen if that will affect his power, but one would think a 6-foot, 220-pound runner should still have plenty of strength to run through tackles.
It remains to be seen whether Lee’s weight loss allow him more speed. He was plodding at times last season in the open field and was extremely susceptible to getting caught from behind, preventing runs from turning into big plays. Not only that, but his lack of speed made it difficult for him to find success by beating his opponents to the edge. That often forced him to cut into contact with the hope of beating it — which he was more than capable of doing.
Like Cain, he has to improve as a pass catcher and pass blocker, but Lee can still provide value as a short-yardage back and a direct replacement for the junior starter.
Freshman to watch
Sophomore Caziah Holmes
He’s not a freshman, but there aren’t any on the roster, so Caziah Holmes will have to do here.
Holmes is the most unique of the five scholarship running backs on the roster. He’s more of a scat back who makes defenders miss with his quickness and moves in the open field. He’s easier to bring down than Lee, Lovett and Cain, but he’s also much more difficult to grab in space.
His shiftiness and quickness in the open field, along with his ability to make defenders miss and effectiveness as a pass catcher, should make him a good complement to the rest of the backfield. While we don’t have him as a key backup or the starter, it’s very likely that Holmes carves out more of a defined role because of his skill set.
There’s a chance he leads all five running backs in receptions by the time the 2021 season comes to an end.
This story was originally published June 20, 2021 at 8:30 AM.
