Penn State has to really work for everything they get, but this is one area in which they stand above the rest.
Penn State football carries itself as one of the elite programs in all of college football. Sometimes, their results come up short of that standard.
However, there is one area in which Penn State consistently stands above the rest in all of College Football. Penn State has produced more first-round running backs than any other school in the entire country.
It is no surprise that Nittany Lion running backs have been and will seemingly always be in a league of their own.
The first one goes all the way back to 1948, when Wallace Triplett was the 19th overall selection by the Detroit Lions. The other names on this list are Lenny Moore in '56, John Cappelletti in '74, Brooker Moore in '81, Curt Warner in '83, DJ Dozier in '87, Blair Thomas in '90, Ki-Jana Carter in '95, Curtis Ennis in '98, Larry Johnson in 2003, and finally, Saquon Barkley in 2018.
Penn State has a total of 11 running backs in the first round, which edges out universities like Ohio State, Southern California, and Alabama.
In their list of first-rounders, Ki-Jana Carter was actually the first overall pick to the Cincinnati Bengals, and Saquon Barkley was the No. 2 overall pick to the New York Giants.
It has been an impressive list of names that have come from Happy Valley to the NFL in the first round. It certainly is not the only list of RBs that have been selected; there have been plenty more, but at the top, Penn State stands alone.
The 2026 draft will not have any Nittany Lions running backs in the first round. The two draft-eligible ball carriers, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, are projected to be fifth or sixth-round picks.
Those two will have the opportunity to be a pleasant surprise to whatever teams draft them, but will not have the expectation to be great.
Getting the Penn State running back room back up to that top of the College Football standard is a part of the challenge that Matt Campbell faces as the head coach of this program.
Penn State has historically been a run-first team. While they are going to have to change their approach slightly, they cannot abandon it. As they grow their attack through the air, they must keep it functional on the ground.
If they can do that, they will add another name to the list of first-round running back picks from Penn State.
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