PASADENA, Calif. —It’s not as though Penn State’s true freshman running back Nicholas Singleton was an unknown entity. The physical speedster had been giving defensive coordinators night terrors for the better part of the 2022 season between a combination of deceptive toughness and blazing home run speed. But even onlookers who knew what to expect couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as Singleton ripped off an 87-yard touchdown run in the third quarter of Penn State’s eventual Rose Bowl win over Utah.
“I just saw a big hole,” Singleton said after the game with a smile.
And boy was there a hole to run through. But like all things in football, what you see, and what coaches see on the sidelines aren’t always the same.
“I felt good when I called it, we had talked about that played leading up to it in bowl prep,” Penn State offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich said afterwards. “Then at halftime we revisited it. And so when it came out of my mouth, I was like, this is a sound call, you know, 3-and-2, didn’t have great field position so we weren’t risking turnover. But when they lined up I think they were in an all out blitz. So, I was like, oh sh*t, this sucks. We’re down to hats. This is not good.”
As Yurcich would go on to note, sometimes all it takes for a call to work is execution. Enter Drew Shelton, Hunter Nourzad, and tight end Theo Johnson, creasing, planting and blocking their defenders right out of the play.
“The play is, it’s a little tricky. So we tried to fool them and we got we caught them off guard and there were guys who executed. And at the end of the day, it’s really not the plays, it’s about your execution. And we we called plays that we rapped 100 million times in bowl prep. And when you do that, when you’re able to do that you give your guys the best chance of success because you might not be in a great call. That happened on the two minute drive at Purdue, the first win of the year, where we call a base call and we out executed them and then on this particular play both against cover zero, which means no safety side, too many freaking people out there, and we just we out executed guys made plays.”
Can’t argue with that, or the callback to a play not unlike it a few years ago when Saquon Barkley went 92-yards in the Fiesta Bowl on a fairly similar style play.
“It’s interesting. They were in cover zero, and we actually did a fake check where we were looking to the sideline, and then snapped the ball,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “We did something similar with Saquon Barkley in the Fiesta Bowl a few years ago. Caught them in cover zero. And they were in a bear front, which I wouldn’t say is the ideal front to run that play into, but once you crease them with Nick’s speed, you’re able to obviously make a huge play and swing the momentum in the game.”
