Nick Singleton has accomplished a lot in his true freshman season at Penn State.
But through nine games, he never ran a kickoff back for a touchdown.
He has now.
Singleton, best known for his abilities as a running back— 801 yards, 6.5 yards per carry and a Penn State freshman-record 10 touchdowns coming into Saturday— had yet to run a kickoff back for a score despite spending time at kick returner. He crossed that off the list about midway through the first quarter at Rutgers to give Penn State its first lead of the day.
Singleton’s special teams coordinator, Stacy Collins, talked about the possibility of Singleton running a kick for a touchdown back in September.
“Nick’s done an unbelievable job,” Collins told reporters via Zoom. “When he catches the ball, he does a great job catching, number one, and two, getting vertical, which is so important from a kickoff return standpoint. He’s been real close on a couple this year. We were just a hair-off on one at Auburn.”
There was nothing off about this return.
Unfortunately for Penn State, it game the lead back up less than two minutes later. Penn State now leads Rutgers, 21-10, in the second quarter.
Here’s Singleton’s return.
1️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ YARD KICK RETURN TO THE HOUSE.@NickSingletonn x @PennStateFball pic.twitter.com/KdCG1S3yBq
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) November 19, 2022
