MMQB: Is Saquon Barkley the Best Penn State Player of the Big Ten Era?

Penn State became an official member of the Big Ten conference during the 1993 season, and since then there have been many All-Americans who have reached legendary status among the Nittany Lion faithful. Lavar Arrington. Ki-Jana Carter. Paul Posluszny. Tamba Hali. Courtney Brown. Michael Robinson. The list goes on and on.

I am just old enough to have started following Penn State for their first season as a Big Ten member, and in that time, I can now safely say that Saquon Barkley is the very best player to don the blue and white in the past quarter-century.

I wasn’t quite ready to make that proclamation heading into the season. I still wanted to see more. Through the first four games of his junior season, Barkley has left no doubt. In an all-time performance on Saturday, Barkley regularly generated big plays, and constantly made what would be a ho-hum 0-2 yard gain for any other running back into at least a seven yard pick up through his extraordinary field vision, burst of quickness and pure strength. It wasn’t just on the strength of this performance, either. Each and every Saturday, Barkley goes out and regularly does the unthinkable, and then does it again and again. He is an absolute special player with a broad skillset that the game almost never sees.

What say you, BSD reader? Is Barkley the best Penn State player of the Big Ten era (or even further back)?