Penn State's Saquon Barkley Looking to Get Back to Old Ways After Down Season

I think if you asked most young Penn State fans who their favorite player in Nittany Lions history is, nearly all of them would say Saquon Barkley. Not only did Barkley have a decorated college career at Penn State, but he was also a really good guy. 

There's something to be said about what he's done for this fan base and continues to do, as he's very supportive of the program and wants what's best for all involved. Fortunately for Barkley, he's also found a lot of success in the NFL. After being one of the most touted running back prospects that we've seen in quite some time, he's certainly lived up to all of the hype.

However, Barkley had one of his worst seasons as a professional a year ago, and as a result, some question whether he's starting to fall off. Running backs can start playing poorly, so it isn't that surprising to see him struggle, though I don't expect this to be a thing for much longer than it was last season.

If there's one thing about Barkley and something all Penn State fans know, it's that he's never going to make excuses. That was the case once again when speaking to reporters about his poor play last year, as he admitted that he needs to be better and has to lock in a lot more moving forward.

“That’s the beauty of it,” Barkley said, per NJ.com. “It’s easy when you rush for all these yards and you win the Super Bowl; it’s easy to watch that film and move on to the next chapter.

“But when it doesn’t go the way you want it to be, you’ve got to lock in even more, be more detailed in yourself, be your biggest self-critic, watch the film and see what I can do better. You find that, you find the weaknesses that you lacked the year prior and you just go balls to the wall in the offseason. That’s what this process and this portion is for.”

I'm never really worried about Barkley not doing what's needed to at least try to be the best. Again, there's a point in every player's career when they start to struggle a bit. 

However, as I noted above, I don't believe that's going to be the case anytime soon for Barkley. Fortunately, he's going to work as hard as he possibly can to ensure he has a chance to play at a very high level, and that's going to be the case this offseason as he's going to prove that.