Where does Royster fit?

by joe_knows on Aug 7, 2010 4:47 AM EDT

As the season approaches, several outlets have discussed Evan Royster and his legacy at Penn State. Barring injury, he'll become the all-time leading rusher at a school that has produced some outstanding (at least at the college level) tailbacks.

So how does Royster measure up? Is he as good as Lenny Moore and Lydell Mitchell? John Cappelletti? Curt Warner, D.J. Dozier and Blair Thomas? Ki-Jana Carter or Curtis Enis? Larry Johnson or Tony Hunt? Some pretty good running backs here.

It's tough to weigh exactly how good Royster is. I will say this, however. What Royster lacks in flashiness, he makes up for in reliability. He won't break many 60 or 70-yard runs, but he'll consistently move the pile forward, a few yards at a time. You won't see him make a bad cut and end up losing three yards very often.I remember in the late 90s and early 2000s, Eric McCoo used to drive me insane by running up to the line up scrimmage, and then STOPPING, before starting
back up again and running parallel to the line of scrimmage and getting dragged down for a three-yard loss.

Royster doesn't do that. I like how he runs up the back of an offensive lineman if the running lane hasn't opened up. And then, he often pops out the other side for a five-yard gain. On paper, Royster matches up fairly evenly with many of the greats named above. He may
have had more games than Warner or Blair Thomas. But he also has only four career games with more than the benchmark of 20 carries (21 against Purdue in 2007, 26 against Iowa in 2008, 23 against Minnesota in 2009
and 20 against Michigan in 2009).

Some will use his draft position as a means of comparing him to the other Penn State greats. To me, that's unfair, because he's not a No. 1 pick, and he might not even be a first-round pick. But that shouldn't tarnish what he's done at Penn State.

If Royster puts up another 1,200-yard season with 8 touchdowns, he will have smashed the rushing record book at Penn State. He's not the home run hitter that Ki-Jana Carter was. He may not have been on a national championship team like Warner, Dozier or Thomas. He may not run over defenders like Curtis Enis did. He may not have a 2,000-yard season like LJ did. But he still, in my opinion, deserves to be involved in any discussion of the Penn State greats.

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Comments

He deserves to be.....

in the discussions of great PSU running backs, of course…..what he lacks is the"Flash" as you stated and that his lacrosse exploits were never brought to proper light.

by DerryPharmer on Aug 7, 2010 10:54 AM EDT reply actions

I always thought that was a shame

he worked so hard to bring up his lacrosse skills in high school, and was never properly recognized for it

by The JuggerNitt on Aug 7, 2010 11:38 AM EDT up reply actions

HA

- yeah; SOOO FEW people know lacrosse is part of his past life! It deservers to be mentioned by one of the CFB analysists before he graduates…

/cough

" When you cross that Blue Line, you are mine...Across the Blue Line, it's all football. " " And what you need to do in your life is paint Blue Lines everywhere. " - Joe Paterno 2009

by BlueWhiteLife on Aug 7, 2010 2:45 PM EDT up reply actions

If healthy....no doubt he will get 1200....

IMO though Royster’s legacy at PSU is going to depend on who he gets his big yards against. Will he give us 120 against the Tide in Tuscaloosa (much like Warner did against UGA in the Sugar Bowl) or is he going to put up his big numbers against Youngstown St, Indiana and the like. I like Royster and I would love to see him take over the game against a Bama, Iowa or Ohio State. Personally I am hopeful that he, Newsome and Green will all contribute to a vaunted Penn State ground attack this year!

I thought only safeties played 15 yards off the ball?

by pic15 on Aug 7, 2010 10:59 AM EDT reply actions

Couldn't Agree more!

This scenario, and/or story-lines like it would absolutely yield the ‘swing’ difference high-noting his career. If he has 120+yds in game two and he merely ‘sets-up’ TDs for others on our O: (Newsome, goal-line option; Green, change of pace; Graham H. Zug!, across the middle, low diving catch…and what I believe could produce a bigger change – DUKES up the gut!) then he has not only got his numbers, but also helped solidify and push part of our SpreadHD objective – diversify!

He’ll get his touches @ the goal-line too; It would be a tad-bit odd to ramble-off 120+ yds and not have @ least one that’s a breakaway. It’s not like people don’t count an individuals TDs anymore…

I believe that this team has the talent it takes for the W’s. We Are…rarely media-darlings; not at least until the 3 or so games + bowls. We CAN achieve what the media would term ‘big wins’ this year. They chose the ‘underdog’…whatever…the team follows JoePa’s / coaches planned scripts + adjustments and play composed football…and watch other teams/fandom/media gasp in unutterable disbelief…

WE ARE!

" When you cross that Blue Line, you are mine...Across the Blue Line, it's all football. " " And what you need to do in your life is paint Blue Lines everywhere. " - Joe Paterno 2009

by BlueWhiteLife on Aug 7, 2010 3:27 PM EDT up reply actions

I think Royster should certainly be mentioned in the best PSU backs of all time

It’s unfortunate for him he is assigned a bit of the “not breakaway” label, since he can certainly produce long touchdowns. IMO one of the reasons for this is because he uses his blockers so well and therefore avoids tacklers at a greater distance than some other running backs (I guess a clearer way to state my opinion would be that he is efficient, not flashy). Therefore, when he runs for 15 yards, he’s not hurdling players and faking linebackers out of their shoes.

Now, to play devil’s advocate for a second, his statistics were benefited by a weak running back situation when he was a freshman and sophomore. For example, a freshman Royster on this year’s team would not see many carries, perhaps even if senior Royster was gone. Also, while Royster is an efficient runner, sometimes he seems to be a little greedy and not take the 4 yards when it is there (particularly on the stretch play). That probably helped him in ’08, but was a detriment last year with the weaker offensive line. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out in ’10.

by cpm126 on Aug 7, 2010 1:04 PM EDT reply actions

RK

There is one back that has gotten very little recognition, primarily because he spent most of his career in a back up role. That guy was Rodney Kinlaw and I know he will never be mentioned or compared as one of the great backs, and probably shouldn’t be since he didn’t have the career stats that the others did, but……

If anyone recalls the 2007 season, he was destined to be the backup to Austin Scott at the start of the season and was that all the way up through the Michigan game. He only became the primary back in the 5th game of the season, and still got over 1,329 yards and 10 TDs that season! That was remarkable, everything considered. Watching the Alamo bowl game from that year, Kinlaw was very explosive through the line. I’m not sure anyone ever realized that. Had he been the primary back in the non conference games, he might very well have had 1600 or 1700 yards for the season. who knows?

Anyway, I’m not suggesting that RK deserves to be included among the greatest PSU backs ever, but he did have one very remarkable season that is often overlooked.

by WeArePennState on Aug 7, 2010 5:17 PM EDT reply actions

Good catch!

" When you cross that Blue Line, you are mine...Across the Blue Line, it's all football. " " And what you need to do in your life is paint Blue Lines everywhere. " - Joe Paterno 2009

by BlueWhiteLife on Aug 7, 2010 5:38 PM EDT up reply actions

if only we used him on that final drive at the MSU game

he was unstoppable the rest of the game, then we decide to get all pass happy.

by The JuggerNitt on Aug 7, 2010 8:01 PM EDT up reply actions

wasn't he hurt?

and Brent Carter was the back? Carter was still ripping up big chunks until we put the game in QB14’s hands.

by whiteoutonly on Aug 8, 2010 2:05 AM EDT up reply actions

One more thing.......

That year, PSU was plagued by fumblaya, ranking something like 114th in the country, I think. It seemed as though A Scott was averaging one a game, and I would shudder every time Morelli took off with the ball, because he fumbled an awful lot, luckily for him, he recovered a lot of them or he would have had that stain against him as well.

Anyway, Kinlaw was a pretty sure-handed back as well. He didn’t fumble much.

by WeArePennState on Aug 7, 2010 8:44 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, but

There were some big holes to run through in that game. I watched it again last week on the BTN and when Kinlaw went out with an injury Royster came in and broke out some nice gains as well. A&M’s front seven were getting blown off the ball all night.

I’m not bashing Kinlaw, we were fortunate to have him after the Austin Scott fiasco, but I don’t think he could compare to the others listed above.

by Frank O'Brien on Aug 8, 2010 11:04 PM EDT up reply actions

Watching many Kinlaw runs

I got the feeling that there were more yards to be had. Not sure that criticism is fair or not, and I certainly cannot support statistically, but it often looked like that one guy tackled him where another running back would have gained an additional 5 yards. I get a similar feeling with Green and I am guessing it has something to do with the way they use their blockers.

by cpm126 on Aug 9, 2010 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions

I never said he belonged.....

with the others, was just pointing out that he was pretty darn good that one year and who knows what could have been had he had the chance.

by WeArePennState on Aug 9, 2010 3:26 PM EDT up reply actions

If he finishes with the most yards, he deserves to be in the discussion

as the best back ever at PSU. And I don’t see how you don’t include him as top ten.

But I’d just as soon wait until the season’s over to start determining where he fits in PSU history.

If he broke his leg and never played again, the last two seasons alone give him a pretty good argument for being all time top 10. Particularly when you consider who (scarecrow, traffic cone, etc) was on the o-line last year.

I wouldn't trust old rooster me neither.

by spakajewia on Aug 8, 2010 7:52 PM EDT reply actions

Good question...

I like Royster a lot even though he is “unspectacular.” Of course, we are in the territory that requires comparisons across eras — not an easy task. The dynamics of a particular team in time and place come into play. For example, I love Lydell Mitchell, but history suggests that he wasn’t even the best back on that team.

"Never mistake motion for action." - Ernest Hemingway

by SubLime on Aug 9, 2010 11:11 AM EDT reply actions

IMO

We need to talk about yards per game with a minimum of 20 games played. Warner and those guys played ten games a year, and I think they didn’t count bowl stats, now they do. Or YPC, minimum of 200 carries or something.

by hbeach08 on Aug 9, 2010 12:55 PM EDT reply actions