CENTRE COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) -- Not often does a college football team return two 1,000-yard rushers from the previous season.
Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen did just that, the only FBS duo to have reached that feat a season ago, a first for the Penn State program.
"That's one beauty about those two is that, you can drill it, you can coach it on film, and you're going to get the carryover in practice," Stan Drayton, Penn State running backs coach, said. "That's what you want."
Drayton joined the Nittany Lions this offseason, giving the two backs a new coach in their final seasons.
"They were always reacting at a high level, at an elite level, now it's time to anticipate," he said. "In order to do that, you've got to learn defense, you've got to understand how your formation is going to set a defense and how that defense is going to fit that formation."
Producing a dominant run game, though, goes well beyond the player in the backfield.
"We give them the opportunity to make that guy miss and not have anybody in the backfield," Phil Trautwein, Penn State offensive line coach, said.
His group does the gritty work, moving the pile and creating the gaps.
"We usually don't have one of them in the backfield, we've got two of them, so for us as an offensive line, it gives us that confidence to know that we don't have to be perfect and they'll help us," Trautwein said. "It makes us feel great when you have two backs back there who do what they do."
Together, they create a dynamic product in the trenches.
Singleton and Allen will again dominate touches in the Penn State backfield, each of them striving for a breakout senior season.
