James Franklin pleased with running back depth at Penn State

Head coach James Franklin spoke following a team practice about the depth Penn State has at the running back position this season. The Nittany Lions enter the 2021 football season with five potential running backs competing for playing time.

Running back depth at Penn State

Franklin spoke with reporters following a team practice on Aug. 10 and commented on the running back situation his team is fortunate to have.

“I think we have one of the stronger running back groups in the country,” Franklin stated. “Ja’Juan [Seider] has done a great job of coaching and developing and recruiting at that position. Plus they’re really good guys, they work well together. They challenge each other.”

Penn State enters this season with five potential running backs in their rotation, including Noah Cain and John Lovett. While the team is having trouble finding playing time for all their talented players, Franklin isn’t intending to play them all.

“We’re also big believers that we’re going to play three backs. The days of the feature backs in college football are gone. We want to play three backs. I think it’s hard to play four.”

Despite this, the expectations for any running back not in the main rotation are just as high. Injuries happen, as Noah Cain has dealt with. Having a backup that’s as good as anyone in the nation is a good way to keep competitive.

“You better have a fourth ready because one of those three will get dinged up and then it will just go to a three-man rotation with that new guy in there,” he pointed out. “I think that we have four backs that we can play with. [We’re] trying to figure out who the top three will be.”

Who is top of the rotation?

Whichever players the final rotation includes, Franklin is planning on using the final scrimmages of the preseason to help narrow down his decision. Currently, the rotation seems to feature Cain and Lovett, but running backs Keyvone Lee and Devyn Ford have strong cases for playing time.

“We’ll get a couple live scrimmages which will help us kind of determine that. But I think the number is three and we’re very pleased with that group and that unit. It’s really a good mix of personalities and styles in that room.”

As the Reading Eagle’s Rich Scarcella reported, running back coach Ja’Juan Seider feels the decision on which player they use might be made game to game.

“We’re going to try to get the best guys on the field,” Seider said. “Some games may dictate who’s in the game. It might be a space game. It might be a downhill game. The good thing is that we have variations of backs who can do different things.”

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images