The Washington Huskies leaned heavily on star running back Jonah Coleman in their 26-21 victory over the USC Trojans, giving the junior a career-high 23 carries that he took for 104 yards and a touchdown. When they travel to Penn State to face off with the Nittany Lions in their annual White Out game, Jedd Fisch would be wise to implore a similar strategy.
Even though defensive coordinator Tom Allen’s unit ranks No. 5 in the Big Ten in rushing yards allowed, giving up an average of 103.3 yards per game, Penn State showed some cracks in its armor against Ohio State’s powerful rushing attack.
The Buckeyes put together a solid 4.4 yards per carry, a number Coleman is more than capable of replicating, while picking up 170 yards on 40 attempts. While Fisch won’t lean that heavily on the run, it will be an important factor in sustaining drives and taking some energy away from the raucous crowd, especially since Coleman is back at full health after dealing with some minor bumps and bruises.
“We needed that bye week for Jonah to get back to as healthy as he can be in the season,” Fisch said on Monday. “Where Jonah is now at physically overall and how he’s feeling, he could handle all 20 carries, and then of course at the end of the game, our goal is about 20 carries. He had 58 plays in the game, so not just the carries but in pass game. I know he only had two catches for 17 yards but overall he had a 58-play game. That’s a substantial amount of reps for a running back. But in the fourth quarter, at the end of the game, I wanted to make sure he was in there.”
If Fisch has a similar workload in mind for Coleman at Beaver Stadium, and the offensive line is able to execute its assignments against Penn State’s talented defensive front, the Huskies could find themselves in a tight battle in the fourth quarter.
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