Penn State's Saquon Barkley is going national in 2017
One day after the end of the 2015 season, Charles Huff took out a piece of Penn State stationery and, using dark black ink, scribbled down a number: 2,037.
That number — the Nittany Lions’ single-season rushing record, set in 2002 by former All-America running back Larry Johnson — now sits in plain sight on Huff’s desk, in the small space between his keyboard and computer monitor. It jogs his memory every time he logs on, sends an email or posts a tweet.
I’ve got work to do, it says — not in so many words, but that’s what it implies: Huff, the Nittany Lions’ running backs coach, must keep pace with his star pupil, junior Saquon Barkley.
Barkley has goals: “I want to break records,” he said this spring from a seat inside Penn State’s football offices, hours after completing another early morning offseason workout. “One of my goals when I got here was I wanted to break every single running back record before I left this place.”
Barkley needs drills. So Huff will comb through tape: that of NFL teams, of NFL-style drills, of Penn State’s own practices and games, of opponents and rivals on the college level.
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Barkley is getting better — adding another 5 pounds to his already muscular frame since the end of last season; running a blazing, check-your-stopwatch 4.33 40-yard dash in a video released by the Nittany Lions earlier this year; and power cleaning 390 pounds, a moment memorialized in a near-viral video, to tie the program’s individual record.
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Barkley challenges Huff. Huff challenges Barkley. “He wants it all,” Huff said. “So for me as his coach, I can’t come and not have a great day or come and not be prepared. Every single day. So I don’t want to be in that position as his coach where I don’t have something.”
Two seasons after Barkley’s college debut, his position coach tells the team’s fellow running backs: You’ve got the opportunity to train and compete with the best in the country at his position — or, as he offers in another metaphor, embrace the chance to spar with college football’s Floyd Mayweather while you can.
“I want to be the best player on the team,” Barkley said. “I want to be the best player in the country. When it comes to situations where somebody needs to make a play, I want to be that guy. You just put your mind to it and you can do it, but you’ve got to work for it.”
That Barkley is the total package — with “attitude, demeanor, work ethic, leadership, speed, vision, quickness, strength, size,” James Franklin said, listing the junior’s attributes — is known inside the Big Ten, as well as by every opponent on Penn State’s schedule. That Barkley hasn’t registered to the same degree on a national scale “has a lot to do with the lack of respect Penn State gets as a program,” senior tight end Mike Gesicki said.
“If he’s at Ohio State, people are blowing up; if he’s at Alabama, people are blowing up. But he’s at Penn State.”
That time under the radar will end this fall: Barkley’s going national in 2017, as the Nittany Lions’ first legitimate Heisman Trophy contender in more than a decade.
“I’ve been doing this 23 years, college and NFL, and I’ve never had a guy like this. Never,” Franklin said. “There are running backs that are fast. That can make you miss. That are strong. If you came up with a desirable list of traits — like Frankenstein, you’re going to build your running back. I don’t know if there’s a box that’s not checked.
“The good lord does not give you everything. Well, in Saquon’s situation, I don’t know if that’s necessarily true.”
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Not every program saw this during Barkley’s recruitment — even Penn State was behind the curve, in fact, as the second regional program to offer a scholarship, following Rutgers. There was a reason he was overlooked, relative to his eventual status as a four-star recruit and ensuing collegiate success: Barkley was 5-6 and less than 160 pounds as a sophomore in high school, when he shared time as his team’s primary running back.
By his junior year, he’d added a few inches and roughly 30 pounds. But he didn’t have much game tape to feed recruiters: “Rutgers offered me on potential,” Barkley said. So he committed to the Scarlet Knights and then-coach Kyle Flood before backing off his verbal pledge to join Franklin and Penn State, an agonizing decision that, Barkley said, “was best for my life.”
Even then, however, Franklin admits his own staff didn’t immediately see Barkley’s potential: “I didn’t probably realize how good he was and how elite he was until his senior year.” Penn State coaches quickly saw what game film struggles to quantify.
When Barkley attended Penn State’s spring game in 2015, Huff caught the recent signee mirroring the play call from the sideline — taking a jab step here and churning his feet there, imitating his future teammates.
Later that summer, Barkley would pick the brain of then-starting quarterback Christian Hackenberg on a near-daily basis, “almost a pest,” Huff said, in his quest to learn the entire gamut of the Nittany Lions’ playbook. It worked: Months later, Barkley would set the program’s single-season rushing record for a freshman.
During film review in advance of Penn State’s matchup with Iowa in November, for example, Huff and Barkley found that one Iowa defensive back liked to tackle low, going for the knees and ankles of a ball-carrier rather than the chest and shoulders. So Barkley was prepared: On a carry against the Hawkeyes, he went up and over the would-be tackler — and did it backwards, Huff points out.
In preparations for the Rose Bowl, Huff outlined how former Southern California defensive back Adoree’ Jackson would often angle his pursuit to catch runaway backs and receivers from behind. So on his 79-yard touchdown run in the second half, Barkley went up the right sideline and broke back toward his left, weaving up and away from Jackson and the rest of the Trojans’ defense on his path to the end zone.
“Those types of things, as a coach, are incredible,” Huff said.
It’s in this drive for continuous improvement, coaches and teammates say, that Barkley has separated himself from the pack — where he’s carved out the immense gap dividing four-star running backs, which litter more depth charts than not on the Power Five ranks, from legitimate Heisman contenders.
“If you want to be the greatest reporter ever and you truly put your mind on it and work at it, you’ll either come really close or get the best of what you’re able to be,” said Barkley. “As long as you work with your best mindset you’re going to get the best version of yourself. You’ve got to have that mindset. You’ve got to set your goals high.”
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He wants to break records — and, barring injury, will do just that. He wants to lead Penn State to another Big Ten championship and Rose Bowl berth. He wants to win a national title. But what about the Heisman? Four running backs finished in the top 10 of Heisman voting in December; all four have since graduated or departed for the NFL, leaving Barkley as perhaps college football’s most productive and recognizable back entering the 2017 season.
“Honestly, I really don’t care about that,” Barkley said.
Yet the numbers speak volumes. He gained 1,496 yards and scored 18 touchdowns on the ground last fall, leading the Big Ten in the latter, and stands roughly 1,800 yards shy of the program’s career rushing mark. A repeat of last season would leave him in sole possession of second place in the school’s record books entering his final season of eligibility.
Internally — and see the stationery on Huff’s desk for just one example – the expectations are that Barkley will challenge that career record this coming fall, as the linchpin of an offensive effort that lifted the Nittany Lions to the top of the Big Ten in 2016.
“It’s funny, because he almost comes off as naïve. It’s almost like he’s unaware of how good he is,” Franklin said. “But he’s very aware. He just doesn’t come off that way. I don’t know if I’ve ever been around a kid that’s had this much success this early and has handled it as well as he has.”
And it’s no coincidence that Barkley’s development into an All-America contender mirrors Penn State’s own return to national relevance — even if that tends to minimize the number of other factors behind the program’s recent rise, including the annual recruiting successes, fellow junior Trace McSorley’s development into an all-conference quarterback and Franklin’s decision to hire former Fordham coach Joe Moorhead as his offensive coordinator prior to last season.
But the spotlight is moving in Barkley’s direction. He’s not a talker – though he’ll rise to the occasion when needed, Gesicki said. He’s never asked about his own touches, said Franklin. Barkley isn’t flashy, said Huff, and he’s not cocky, but he’s “very critical of himself.”
“Once he steps on the field,” said Bates, “it’s game time. He’s in the zone.”
All eyes will be on Penn State in 2017; it’s unavoidable that Barkley’s stretch as an overlooked All-America contender will be replaced by weekly updates on his own numbers, right alongside the Nittany Lions’ push for another conference championship. His college career will change.
“I want to leave here as the all-time leading rusher in almost everything,” he said. “I’ve got a Big Ten championship already. Wouldn’t be bad if I got another one. And to get a national championship?”
The question lingered, and went unanswered. To win a national title? That would be something. It would also mean something: Title contention for Penn State would place Barkley deep in the Heisman mix. But there are photographers downstairs in Penn State’s football facility, and Barkley needs to change into his uniform. It’s time for his cover shot.
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