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Before he started making all of those college football watch lists, Saquon Barkley became something to see.
It opened his eyes to how explosive he can be.
Maybe that’s why Barkley asked for a chance to expand his role with Penn State this season, hoping to add kickoff return duties to his regular job of breaking off electrifying bursts down the field as one of the nation’s premier running backs.
“I wouldn’t mind running down, trying to make a tackle,” Barkley smiled.
The Nittany Lions surely don’t want to see that.
But putting the ball in Barkley’s hands more often? That would be something even his teammates might pay to watch.
“I think it’s the number of traits he possesses,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “A lot of times you find guys who are fast but are not big. Or are fast, but are not quick. He’s got the mentality, the size, the quickness, the speed. He’s got a lot of desirable traits. The Good Lord doesn’t give you everything.
“For whatever reason, he’s been given more than most.”
That has been evident for awhile.
Barkley goes back to his mini-football days to pinpoint when his interest in football turned into a hunger.
“Me and my dad had a bet,” the son of Alibay Barkley and Tonya Johnson from Coplay (near Allentown) said. “If I scored 15 touchdowns, he said he’d give me $100.”
He was sitting on 14 scores when Barkley broke off a 99-yard touchdown run.
“I was like, ‘Give me that money,’ ” Barkley remembers.
Not so fast.
“It got called back,” Barkley said. “Next play I got it, I scored on an 80-yard touchdown.”
For Penn State, it turned out to be the start of a big payday.
Barkley rushed for a Penn State freshman record of 1,076 yards last season, scored seven touchdowns and averaged 5.9 yards per carry to spark a sometimes-stagnant offense and lift the Lions to a 7-5 regular season.
He led the Big Ten with 16 runs of 20 or more yards, gained at least 10 yards on 34 of his 182 rushes and was named a Freshman All-American following the 2015 campaign.
That dynamic debut put him on preseason watch lists for the Maxwell Award (given to the best player in college football), the Doak Walker Award (for the nation’s premier running back) and the Big Ten Players to Watch (as the lone underclassman) entering his sophomore season.
“That’s interesting,” Barkley said, “but I really don’t pay attention to that.”
He made people take notice throughout his high school days at Whitehall, where Barkley ran for 1,856 yards and scored 31 touchdowns as a senior in 2014 after rushing for 1,506 yards with 27 touchdowns as a junior to earn a ranking as the nation’s ninth-best running back recruit by 247Sports.
“I think you see a guy who has all the skills necessary to be a superstar,” new Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead said. “He can make you miss, he can hurdle you, he can run around you, he can run over you.
“A small man’s back in a big man’s body.”
But this was big-time college football Barkley walked into at Beaver Stadium.
And he was hardly expecting to dominate at Penn State.
“My goal was to play,” Barkley said. “I just wanted to maybe be on the field.”
Then it happened.
During his second collegiate game, Barkley hurdled a Buffalo defensive back — much to the delight of Beaver Stadium — to pick up a first down on his way to his first 100-yard collegiate rushing game.
It was only an 18-yard gain. But it meant much more to Barkley.
“One play that stands out to me, I definitely remember my first game when I jumped over the safety,” said Barkley, who went on to have many more runs much longer and more dramatic, including a season-long 56-yarder against Ohio State. “I was like, ‘Wow. This is it. This is college football. This is what I’ve been dreaming about.’
“Thank God I was able to have a pretty decent year.”
Now he wants to add more duties to it.
An explosive kickoff and punt returner in high school, Barkley suggested Penn State may want to try him in a similar return role in an attempt to add some splash to a special teams unit that’s struggled to produce big plays.
Franklin, for one, was willing to listen.
”Saquon has no individual goals. Saquon’s goal is to do whatever he can to help the team,” Franklin said. “If that’s returning kicks or punts, we’ve got to consider doing it. There’s risk and there’s reward.”
It could turn out to be a sight to behold.
“Whenever you have a player who has his playmaking ability, you’ve got to find multiple ways of putting the ball in his hands,” said Charles Huff, who is not only Penn State’s special teams coach, but also the Lions’ running backs coach.
Make no mistake, Barkley plans to put those hands to good use, in more ways than one.
“I dropped a couple passes last year,” Barkley said. “That’s another thing I focus on. Definitely pass blocking, I feel I struggled there a lot last year. If I can improve my pass blocking, that’ll take it to a whole ‘nother level. The mindset I have to to try and be an every-down back.”
And a player the nation can’t help but watch.
“Could make an argument,” Franklin said of Barkley, “(he’s) one of the top backs in the country.”
