Miles Sanders leads Penn State rushing attack by going forward

Penn State's Miles Sanders had this belief, as did Saquon Barkley before him, that he was talented enough to accept a handoff at any spot on the field and take it all the way.

Of course, that theory came with a downside, like a tackle for a loss when nothing was there to slow down an offense. Barkley had his share of carries for lost yardage in his otherwise spectacular three-year career in the Happy Valley. So did Sanders, at least in his first two games of the 2018 season.

However, after losing yardage on seven of 35 carries against Appalachian State and Pittsburgh, Sanders has spent nearly all his time going forward. He has been tackled for a loss in just one of his 36 carries since then, including no negative yards in 22 rushes at Illinois, where he gained a career-high 200 yards.

"You just want to keep having positive yards," Sanders said Wednesday in a conference call with reporters. "I don't want to hurt our offense and put us in tough situations [by] losing yards just trying to make the home run. So just knowing that there's way more plays to be played."

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"If it's not there, don't try to make it something that's hurting us. So I had to learn that the first two games, and I feel like I've been doing better."

The ability to grind out a short gain when nothing is there is part of the improvement in Sanders, who enters Saturday night's "White Out" game against fourth-ranked Ohio State with 495 rushing yards and 123.8 yards per game, seventh in the nation. The Nittany Lions rank first in the Big Ten and 10th in FBS with a 275-yard rushing average per game.

"It's just running with more power and being more physical," the 5-foot-11, 215-pound junior from Pittsburgh said, "and hitting the hole harder when I see it, and quicker, just taking those hard 2-yard runs, those 3-yard runs, those 4-yard runs, instead of bouncing it or making a negative play."

One of Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin's suggestions for a running back is that "sometimes there's nothing prettier than an ugly 3-yard run." Sanders has learned to embrace it.

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"The first couple of weeks he was bouncing some things that he shouldn't have," Franklin said. "A lot of times at running back, you think you want to bounce everything and try to go 80 every single time, and now we end up second-and-12. So getting a running back to understand, lower your shoulder and fighting into a crack and getting 2 or 3 yards and keeping us on schedule is important."

"I think he's doing a really good job of that. Miles is doing a really, really good job of being consistent in getting us positive yardage."

A big assist goes to Penn State's improved offensive line, a group with which Sanders is especially close. In his postgame interview after the Lions' 63-24 victory over Illinois, he used the word "thank" or "appreciate" with the offensive line five times in one answer.

"You've always got to give credit to the big guys, show them love," Sanders said. "It's always been like that for me since high school, always credited my o-line. You can't do without them. You can't run the ball without the o-line, so you have to thank them."