UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Miles Sanders is wrapping up his first season as Penn State’s feature back.
It might not be his last.
Sanders, a junior, said Wednesday that he hasn’t even pondered the possibility of forgoing his final year of eligibility to enter the NFL draft.
“I haven’t ever thought about that this year,” he said. “I’ve just been focused on playing football, really. That never really crossed my mind.”
Sanders, widely regarded as the top running back prospect in the nation when he played at Woodland Hills, ascended from the second spot on the depth chart because Saquon Barkley opted to turn pro after his junior season.
Sanders has had a solid season, even if he hasn’t had quite as many highlight-caliber runs as Barkley.
He enters Penn State’s noon game at Rutgers on Saturday as the Nittany Lions’ leading rusher with 1,007 yards on 166 carries.
He will have a chance to pad those totals against the Scarlet Knights, who are giving up an average of 230.2 yards per game on the ground. Only 12 teams in the nation are allowing more.
Regardless of what he accomplishes against Rutgers or in the regular-season finale against Maryland, however, Sanders already has surpassed one of the few statistical objectives he had before this season.
“My goal was to eclipse 1,000 yards,” he said. “That’s one of the only goals I set for myself.”
Sanders also has 18 receptions, fourth-most on the team.
“I think I catch the ball out of the backfield pretty well,” he said.
Not all of Sanders’ contributions are so easily quantified. He has, for example, taken on much more of a leadership role than he had during his first two seasons at Penn State.
“I was nowhere near as vocal as I am now,” he said.
Assertive, too.
A day after Penn State’s humbling 42-7 loss at Michigan on Nov. 3, he organized a visit by the running backs to Penn State’s offensive linemen to offer encouragement to a unit that had endured a miserable day in Ann Arbor.
“I’ve just been so impressed with his overall development,” coach James Franklin said. “The type of teammate he is, the type of leader he has really grown into. How thoughtful he is. How supportive he is. Not just when things are going well, but when times get tough.”
Sanders entered the season doomed to have pretty much every run and block judged on a scale of 0-to-Barkley. That’s not a comparison that will turn out well for many backs, but Sanders does have an edge in at least one area: He doesn’t get tackled for a loss nearly as often as Barkley did, mostly because Sanders is willing to settle for a modest gain rather than risk giving up a lot of ground while trying to break off a long run.
“He’s done a really good job in knowing who he is and getting north/south, which I think has also been a big factor in us eliminating the tackles-for-loss that put us, and him, in a tough situation,” Franklin said.
While Sanders’ decision-making has been sound, his ability to hold on to the ball has been an issue on occasion. He has fumbled three times this season, losing two of those.
“I think we can still be a little bit better from a ball-security standpoint,” Franklin said. “I think, overall, he’s been pretty good. I’d like to see him get in a situation where we’re talking about [a] record number of carries without putting the ball on the ground.”
It looks, at least for now, as if Sanders will have another year at Penn State to work on that.
Dave Molinari: Dmolinari@Post-Gazette.com and Twitter @MolinariPG
First Published: November 14, 2018, 7:04 p.m.