STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- When the pre-game butterflies kicked in and Miles Sanders waited to make his varsity debut, the only thing that could take his mind off the bigger and stronger Upper St. Clair players across the field was a phone call to his mom.
“I can remember to this day when he called and he was like, ‘Mom, are you here?’ ” Marlene Sanders said. “He had that starting role and of course he was scared.”
As has been the case since that game – one where Sanders carried the ball 18 times for less than 10 yards but gained invaluable confidence because the then 5-9, 160 pounder started as a ninth grader for Woodland Hills and made it through the game – Marlene knows to expect a game-day call.
“Every game, ‘Mom, are you here?’ ” she said. “He wants to know even if he can’t see me he wants to know mom is in the stands.”
Whether it’s making the 10-hour drive from Pittsburgh to Iowa or the straight shot across the state to Beaver Stadium, her response has always been the same. Whether Miles starts or comes off the bench, fumbles or scores a touchdown she’ll be there for every game just like she’s always been since he started playing football at 7 years old.
She’s certainly not about to miss any snaps now.
With the starting running back spot up for grabs as Penn State moves on in the post-Saquon Barkley era, Sanders has the chance to seize an opportunity he’s waited for since he committed to Penn State. James Franklin said in the winter the position could take on more of a back by committee approach than it has in the past and five-star signee Ricky Slade arrives this summer. Mark Allen, Johnathan Thomas and Journey Brown will be in the mix as well.
Still, Sanders has a spot to protect and it's one he’s waited to fight for.
“He’s a special talent,” Barkley said in January when he sat next to Sanders in the locker room after the Fiesta Bowl for one last time. “Obviously he hasn’t gotten the opportunity to show his talent as much as he’d like, but we’ve seen it in practice, we’ve seen flashes of it. He’s strong, he’s powerful, he’s fast, he’s a hard worker, he’s humble and he’s going to be a great back in the future. … You guys won’t be talking about Saquon Barkley for long.”
The last two years watching and learning from Barkley helped groom Sanders for this opportunity. He learned how to be patient though it wasn't always easy. Early fumbling issues gave way to second-guessing. Standing on the sideline made him wonder if he was in the right spot. Usually quiet and laid back, Sanders wondered aloud to his mom if this was what he signed up for.
When Sanders committed to Penn State nobody knew Barkley would go on to shatter records and catapult himself into becoming the potential No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. Waiting two years behind him after Sanders was in the spotlight as a highly-touted recruit seemed like an eternity.
Mom preached patience and son in typical teenage fashion had the occasional “Yeah, but…”
“As parents sometimes we think they’re not listening because they don’t want to hear it, but they are,” Marlene said, adding that Sanders by the end of his freshman year understood this was the natural progression and that he’d have to wait his turn. “They’re listening.”
After all, it’s not every day a highly-touted recruit says no to Alabama like Sanders did or successfully fends off Michigan State as the Spartans pursued him around the clock, coming and going to his high school the week before he signed with Penn State. Pitt put on the full-court press too. The Panthers tried to sell him on the idea of home games in Heinz Field, but that didn't appeal to Sanders, in part because he wanted to be farther away from the city he grew up in, but also not too far that mom would have to figure out flights for every game.
This spring while mom and son FaceTime and the Nittany Lions figure out their pecking order in the backfield, certainly the stakes for Miles have never been higher. When Barkley gave Marlene a hug toward the end of last season he told her that her son had a bright future and that Miles needed to save some of his records.
It's an unenviable spot to follow in Barkley's footsteps, but Marlene has long delivered the message to her son that this journey was going to be whatever they made of it.
"I told him, 'This is your time. Saquon is gone and nobody expects you to go out there and be Saquon. You're Miles. I expect you to go out there and be Miles and show them why they recruited you,' " she said. "That's what we're waiting to see."