Penn State Football: Saquon Barkley compares favorably to Ezekiel Elliott
Penn State football’s Saquon Barkley has drawn comparisons to Ezekiel Elliott, and they’re actually not too farfetched.
Every year, there’s talk of “the next” star at each position. Usually, it’s followed up with the name of a former college football superstar and it gives the current player an unfair expectation to live up to. However, Penn State football’s Saquon Barkley compares favorably to a recent great.
During Big Ten media days this past week, Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer was asked to talk about comparisons that had arisen between Barkley and Ezekiel Elliott, a former Buckeye.
Many expected Meyer to laugh off the question because Elliott was a once-in-a-generation type of back for the Buckeyes, but his answer was surprising. In fact, he said that the comparisons between Barkley and Elliott were “very fair.”
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Penn State fans and coaches tend to agree with Meyer’s assessment. Barkley has put up more yards (2,572) and rushing touchdowns (25) than Elliott did in his first two years in Columbus. Sure, the latter wasn’t a starter as a freshman, but it’s still something that’s worth talking about.
Moreover, Barkley has more receiving yards and touchdowns in two seasons with Penn State than Elliott did in his entire three-year career with the Buckeyes. He’s already more of a threat to catch the ball out of the backfield, so in that aspect, he may already be ahead of Elliott.
Not to mention the fact that Barkley is an absolute gym rat. He is considered one of the strongest running backs ever and even benched 390 pounds and squatted 495 pounds, according to pennlive.com — and that was last offseason. On top of that, he ran a 4.38 40-yard dash which is faster than Elliott’s 4.47 clocked in at the 2016 NFL Combine.
On top of that, both are the same size, or at least very close. Elliott is 6-foot-0 and 225 pounds while Barkley is listed at 5-foot-11 and 223 pounds. One inch and two pounds separate these two backs.
Depending on how much Barkley improves on his yards per carry average in 2017, he could finish off with a better collegiate career than Elliott who recorded over 1,800 yards in his final two seasons.
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Say what you will about the comparisons being silly, but Saquon Barkley looks poised to be an even better running back than a current top-two back in the NFL. The comparisons are not that far off.