Welcome back, Nick Singleton. Good to see you. And great to see you go, go, go.
After a somewhat desultory 2023 — save for the final three-game stretch — Singleton has returned to form as a powerful, explosive, happy and fun-to-watch running back for the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions.
In two disparate victories to open 2024, he has been Nick Singular in purpose: Keep pounding and good things will happen. Again.
Now in his third, and likely last, season at Penn State, the former national Gatorade Player of the Year is pouring it on. He’s had two 100-yard games: 114 at West Virginia and 119 yards vs. Bowling Green, both efforts on 13 carries. Overall, his 233 yards ranks him No. 15 in the country among all rushers in major college football.
Teammate Kaytron Allen also had a good day vs. BG, rushing 14 times for 101 yards. They make for an imposing 1-2, but in my book, No. 10 is clearly RB1. I’m anxious to see how this season goes for him, to see where he’ll land among the best three running backs I’ve covered at PSU — Warner, Ki-Jana and Saquon. All were transformational on the field and charismatic in their own way off the field.
Singleton’s return to form is due to a number of factors. The first that comes to mind — for both you and me — is new Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. He’s brought new schemes to the playing field and renewed positivity on offense to Lasch Building. Both matter.
But so does the bourgeoning complete package that is Nick Singleton. That includes his mental approach. He’s a humble, respectful, modulated and mature young man — never too high, never too low, in almost every situation that I’ve seen him in. He handles his business the right way, probably the best compliment you can give a college student (and athlete) these days.
Let’s dig into 10 key reasons why Singleton is back, just in the nick of time to showcase his skills for the NFL and also give the Nittany Lions the O-line snap, fan-buzzy crackle and big-play pop they’ve been missing:
1. DIRTY RUNS — That’s what Singleton calls the inside stuff that goes for three yards and a cloud of dust. Those carries add up, and set the stage for the big pops.
“There are going to be long runs and scoring touchdowns and all that,” Singleton acknowledges. “But there are dirty runs too. Coach [Ja’Juan] Seider is always talking about, ‘Don’t be mad when you get two yards, four yards, five yards. They keep piling up and eventually it’ll break out.’ ”
Fans love the big plays, but the NFL scouts appreciate and understand the dirty work, as Singleton knows: “Coach Seider said, ‘Don’t get upset with dirty runs. Coaches see it.’”
2. THINK HOLISTICALLY — That was the lesson of 2023, and all through winter workouts, spring drills and summer. “It was frustrating at first,” Singleton shares. “But if you see me as a whole running back, I got better with stuff like blocking, catching the ball, being a complete back. So, it wasn’t like a bad year [in 2023], but it was a step-back year to just look back and see what’s going on.”
In other words, Nick the running back is not a single(ton) thing. He had just 11 catches for 85 yards in 2022, for a 7.7-yard average. In 2023, he caught 26 passes for 385 yards, for an average of 11.8 yards, with two touchdowns. So, while his average yards per carry dropped by a whopping 2.4 yards, he became a more complete player. Two steps forward, one step back, two steps forward. (Plus, he’s a durn good kick returner, with a long of 100 yards for a TD against Rutgers as a freshman.)
Over the past summer, he was far from single-minded: “Doing stuff in the offseason, working with the receivers, tight ends, quarterbacks — doing different routes, just to ride my game. Big credit to them.”
3. COACH K COULD BE JOEMO 2.0 — How players in 2024 talk about Kotelnicki is how they talked back about offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead back in 2016. Kudos to head coach James Franklin for clearing the decks to make both hires, then stepping aside. As Singleton says, “Coach K has been really good. His scheme is really different from last year. Just everybody’s buying into it. Everybody’s locked in. Everybody takes the right approach with it.”
4. NICK BOMBS, aka EXPLOSIVE PLAYS — This is why you’re here. And why Singleton’s average carry has gone from 6.8 yards in 2022 to 4.4 yards in 2023 to 9.0 yards in 2024. Audrey Snyder of The Athletic dug up this nugget from TruMedia: Penn State’s offense is ranked No. 4 nationally in explosive play rate — percent of pass plays of 16-plus yards and run plays of 12-plus yards. Last season? PSU was ranked No. 103. Nick Bombs, by year, yardage and modus operandi:
2022 — Runs (12): 87, 70, 54, 48, 45, 44, 31, 30, 27, 26, 21. Catches (1): 22.
2023 (6 of the 8 came after Mike Yurcich was fired) — Runs (4): 24, 20, 20, 20. Catches (4): 53, 48, 28, 22.
2024 (after 2 games) — Run (4): 41, 40, 40, 24.
5. BLOCKING THE INSIDE ZONE — Center and co-captain Nick Dawkins: “When you look at our offense right now, the defenses are very reactionary to the multiple facets of our game — we have option, all kinds of stretches and inside zone. That allows for Nick to hit the backside, like you saw in the touchdown [vs. Bowling Green]. And that was the inside zone. He was able to spring it out. Even on the outside zone, he had a big run there and hit on the front side. It opens different avenues and different holes for him to use his speed and utilize it for one of his superpowers and kind of just allows him to play into that.”
Offensive tackle Anthony Donkoh: “We try to get the hard five yards. You see that a lot when we’re running inside zone. There’s a chance that it’s going to be explosive, but there’s also a chance that you’re going to gain an efficient five or four yards on that play.”
6. A FASTER, MORE PHYSICAL O-LINE — QB Drew Allar: “The biggest thing is the linemen are playing super-fast and physical, super-decisive. With Coach K, we have so many run schemes and they’re super-detailed and -oriented. We rep them so much throughout the week and walkthroughs and practices, where all of the linemen are just playing fast and physical. When we think of playing with speed and winning with speed, we think of more of the outside — but it really applies to inside as well. For the line, it’s just getting up to their IDs and playing fast and physical, and that creates a lot of opportunities for Nick and Fat [Allen].”
7. A NEW ATTITUDE — Donkoh: “Nick’s attitude and everything, his approach to everything, is different this year. I would say that for him and Kaytron. There’s a big difference from them with attitudes and perspectives. They’re just excited every time they get the ball.”
8. THE X FACTOR — After the Bowling Green game last Saturday, I asked Singleton, “Can you share the X’s and O’s of it?”
Singleton smiled, looked up and paused: “I ain’t gonna share because, like, the stuff we’ve been doing, I don’t want other teams to know it.”
Too late, Nick.
9. NEVER STOP RUNNING. AND WE MEAN EVERYONE — Donkoh: “They were emphasizing it a lot during camp. We had a system where you had to run until the whistles blew. And then even when the whistles were blown you had to keep running. It was to emphasize everybody had to finish. That’s shown in the game, with getting extra yardage that they normally wouldn’t get.”
10. IN THE LONG RUN, IT’S FUN — I asked Singleton: “What is it like when you break free, and there’s no one between you and six points?”
“I’m really just running, I’m running for real,” he said, sharing his singular purpose. “I’m just running to the end zone. Explosive.”
And yes, he punctuated the sentence with “explosive.” For Penn State in 2024, that’s the exclamation point.
