EVANSTON, Ill. -- It's time to revisit this interesting debate, which we'll need to do from time to time for at least another year.
Who is Penn State's better running back right now: Nicholas Singleton or Kaytron Allen?
Unless you're just married to one answer -- and some, probably many, people are -- you should be able to recognize the answer to this question already has and very well may continue to change over time.
The most important thing, from Penn State's perspective, is that this is a really good situation to have. Because the bottom line is that Singleton and Allen have worked extremely well together as a tandem in the first 17 games of their college careers, and having both of them available gives the offense a lot of options.
OK, but who's better right now?
Let's take a look at the stats through four games.
Singleton: 53 carries, 203 yards, 3.8 average, 5 TDs, 7 catches for 72 yards. His high was 70 yards rushing against West Virginia.
Allen: 63 carries, 280 yards, 4.4 average, 1 TD, 5 catches for 32 yards. He had 103 yards rushing against Delaware and 72 against Iowa and has outrushed Singleton in each of the past three games.
Based on those numbers and also the eye test, the conclusion here is that Allen, who's more of a workhorse tailback, is the more reliable of the two right now.
James Franklin has been heaping praise on Allen for several weeks now, making sure the young man is getting his due.
“I just want to make sure that our fans and everybody that follows Penn State closely knows how fortunate we are and how blessed we are to have Kaytron,” Franklin said after Allen's 103-yard performance against Delaware. “In our locker room, we’ve got a ton of respect for him, and so does our staff.
"We are blessed to be one of these programs that has two backs that are two of the better backs in all of college football, and we recognize that, and we’re appreciative of that.”
Singleton, of course, doesn't need to be hyped up near as much by Franklin. He came to Penn State already as a superstar, being named the national Gatorade High School Player of the Year in 2021. He then put on a show last season with multiple long TD runs, including an 87-yarder against Utah in the Rose Bowl.
But Singleton's longest gain this year has only been 19 yards, and if he's not breaking free for big runs, there's really no doubt that Allen has been the more effective down-to-down runner.
Allen is averaging 4.4 yards per carry, to 3.8 for Singleton. Both of them are down from a year ago, but Singleton is way down. Allen was at 5.2 a year ago, while Singleton was at 6.8, so the latter is down 3 full yards per carry.
Again, that's a result of Singleton not having any long runs yet. If he breaks one Saturday at Northwestern, his average will shoot up big time, and perhaps top Allen.
Then we can have the debate again about who's better.
But perhaps a better question is this one: If Penn State faces a key third-and-3 against a solid defense, who would you rather have run the ball?
Who do you think the Penn State coaches would rather have run the ball?
My answer is Allen. Simply because he just appears to be the better physical, between-the-tackles runner at this stage of his career than Singleton.
"He definitely doesn’t get enough recognition for how hard he works and how well he plays week in and week out,” quarterback Drew Allar said of Allen after the Delaware game.
"Kaytron is one of the more consistent players on our team, I would say, even going back to last year. He’s the same guy coming into the building every day. He practices very hard, one of the hardest practicers I’ve ever seen."
Then Allar closed by adding, "He does a lot of things he doesn’t get enough praise for."
It's always going to be tough for Allen to get the kind of praise he deserves while playing alongside Singleton. Maybe that's why Franklin seems to go out of his way at times to talk up Allen.
A big part of this whole discussion is size.
Allen's nickname is Fatman. He was upwards of 230 pounds when he got to Penn State, but by the time the 2022 season rolled around, that Fatman nickname didn't fit him anymore as he was down around 200. He had a good year running at that weight, rushing for 867 yards and 10 TDs.
Allen looks a whole lot different this year, though, as he's put on a lot of good weight and is much stronger. Thanks to a great commitment in the weight room, he's now listed at 222 pounds, roughly 20 more than a year ago.
You combine the weight and strength with his more patient running style, it gives Allen the ability to look for a hole to open up and then be strong enough to crash through it.
Singleton is the opposite. He gets the ball and darts straight ahead. If there's a hole, he's gone. Nobody's catching him with his blazing speed. But if there's no hole, he doesn't seem to have quite the ability of Allen to still turn it into a good gain.
Singleton has even said he tries to learn to be more patient from Allen.
"He's been helping me a lot," Singleton said a few weeks ago. "Obviously, the patience he has, I try to play a game like that. You know he's a physical runner, so I'm trying to be a physical runner, too."
"When he sees something and when I feel something, we both feed off each other," Allen said. "He's like my brother from another mother."
Allen also noted: "Everybody in the running back room, we all feed off each other. We all give each other information, so everybody says something on what they're seeing, and we listen to each other and make sure we're doing the right thing."
We've been over and over how defenses are playing Penn State and trying to prevent giving up explosive plays. That includes playing man-to-man coverage on the receivers and putting more defenders in the box to focus on the run.
That's the reason both Singleton and Allen are down this season in yards per carry, along with, of course, Singleton not having any long runs.
"What's interesting is if you look at our yards per carry in the first half (against Iowa) and then you look at our yards per carry in the third quarter and you look at our yards per carry in the fourth quarter, we just kind of kept chipping away at them," Franklin said. "We didn't average a great yards per carry in the first half, but in the third quarter and the fourth quarter it was excellent."
Therein lies the great part about having two good running backs. We can -- and will -- keep debating which one is better, but the bottom line is Penn State can keep using both to grind down defenses while keeping both players fresh. That, in turn, is when you'd think Singleton would have more opportunities to bust some big runs.
Don't be surprised if we finally see that happen Saturday at Northwestern.
