STATE COLLEGE – When Nick Singleton plowed through the SMU defense for a 1-yard touchdown in the second quarter Saturday, Penn State coach James Franklin and others heard the impact on the sideline.
“It was violent,” Franklin said. “I told him that and he screamed at me. He used some words that I can’t use in this setting. He said, ‘I’m a violent….man.’ I kind of agreed with him and backed up.”
Singleton and backfield mate Kaytron Allen combined to rush for 160 yards and three touchdowns as the Nittany Lions pounded SMU 38-10 in their first-round College Football Playoff game Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
“I'm not going to repeat what I said, but that's what my game is,” Singleton said. “I'm trying to be more of a physical runner, run through someone when the extra man is there. Coach Seider (running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider) always says just leave one (hole) for us.
“That was my mentality at the 1-yard line. Plus I wanted to get in there and try to help my team get a win.”
Singleton, the former Gov. Mifflin star, rushed 14 times for 90 yards and Allen carried 11 times for 70 yards. Both averaged 6.4 yards per attempt against the nation’s fourth-best rushing defense.
Both of them topped 100 rushing yards against Oregon in the Big Ten championship game two weeks ago.
“Me and Kaytron always say we’re the best backfield in the nation,” Singleton said. “We stand on it. Shout-out to the offensive line. They did a good job today. I feel like we just keep going with it. Keep practicing hard. Take one day at a time and find the little stuff we can get better at.”
Penn State finished with 189 rushing yards against SMU, which had limited opponents to 93.4 per game.
“It starts up front at the end of the day for us in both the run and pass game,” quarterback Drew Allar said. “But when you have guys like Nick and Kaytron on the team, they make a lot of guys miss. It just really helps our offense flow as a whole.”
Grunkemeyer debuts: Penn State freshman quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer took the first snaps of his career when he replaced Allar with more than 10 minutes left.
Grunkemeyer threw an interception on his first pass attempt off the hands of wide receiver Harrison Wallace III. He later connected with Wallace on a 9-yard gain for the first completion of his career.
“I think he handled the moment fine,” offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said. “There was no adaptation of what was being called. He prepared all week to go into the game, like we would expect.
“Anytime you’re the backup quarterback or the third-string quarterback, you need to prepare like you’re the starter. I think he does that. I thought he went in and handled it well.”
Grunkemeyer became the second-team quarterback earlier in the week after Beau Pribula placed his name in the transfer portal and left the team. Pribula visited Central Florida, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri this week.
Crowd factor: There was much speculation about how many fans would attend Saturday’s game at Beaver Stadium for several reasons.
Penn State students are on their semester break, plus the weather was blustery with a temperature of 25 degrees and winds out of the northwest at 18 mph.
In addition, hotels in the State College area jacked up their prices, some to as much as $1,000 per night.
But the stadium was nearly filled to capacity with an announced crowd of 106,013. SMU was forced to call two timeouts because of crowd noise.
“It was phenomenal,” Franklin said. “The environment was phenomenal. The turnout was unbelievable. Ninety-nine percent of the stadium was filled with our fans and it made a huge difference.
“It was impactful today.”