Nick Singleton's trainer: 'I think the sky's the limit'
Dane Miller, Nick Singleton's longtime trainer, remembers a session last summer, over Zoom, when the newest Penn State running back commit put his physical and mental strength on full display.
Unable to connect in person due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Singleton and Miller wanted to strengthen the running back's legs. The problem, of course, was that Singleton had no squat rack in the small, sweaty garage that served as his makeshift weight room.
With 330 pounds worth of weight at his disposal, Singleton improvised. As Miller monitored his progress through a screen, Singleton executed a 330-pound clean, and followed it with six 330-pound front squats.
"He's doing that in his garage, which is this little 12-by-12 garage, hot as hell," Miller said. "No music's on because he needed his phone to get into Zoom, so we couldn't play any music. It would just be me and him on Zoom.
"One, the mental aspect of that, and then, two, he's cleaning 330 and then front squatting it for six reps. That's hard. That's very hard.
"I would venture to say that there's very few high school kids as strong as him across the board."
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Singleton is Penn State's first running back commit in the 2022 class and the No. 8 ranked running back prospect in the country.
Out of Shillington, Pa., Singleton is — as of now — the second-highest rated member of the Nittany Lions' Class of 2022, coming in one spot behind offensive lineman Drew Shelton at 124.
Miller has been working with Singleton since he was a pre-teen, and while his unique athleticism didn't become apparent until he got older, Singleton's attitude always impressed Miller.
"I think what was more special than anything was not his physical ability, but more the fact that he's at the end of fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade and eighth grade, and it was just this relentless training, four-to-five days a week, no real complaining," Miller said. "I think that was the most special part that stuck out early on, it was just, 'Man, this kid does not stop.' He just keeps coming back."
In Singleton's view, Miller explained, completing the tasks that help make you better is easy.
Being an athlete is about putting in the work. That's something that he's never wavered from.
"Everybody should just show up," Miller said of Singleton's viewpoint. "Everybody should just train. Everybody should just do their work. Nobody should really complain. He'll just shrug it off, like, 'Alright, I'm just here to do what I'm supposed to do.'
"I think that goes back to a really good upbringing with his parents, and he is competitive too. He saw early on, if I train hard for a year, or even a month or two, when my friends come in I can smash them in weights because I've been doing this a lot longer, so the more I do it, the better I'll get at this, and the better results will be from a competitive perspective."
Nowadays, Miller's sessions with Singleton consist of strength work, as well as other types of training such as jumps, plyometrics and unilateral work designed to help Singleton improve his speed and agility.
In Miller's conversations with college coaches, it's clear that they all recognize his ability to get to the edge and hit the hole.
Now, it's up to Singleton to improve the finer aspects of his game as he looks toward the jump to college football.
"If they can help him improve zone blocking and running inside of a zone scheme, I think he's going to be phenomenal," Miller said. "That goes back to his personality, where he'll learn anything you teach him. He's very coachable, he's quiet, and he absorbs what you're talking about. He'll still bring up stories or little debates or discussions that we've had like three years ago...It's just stuff like that that normal kids don't do.
"I think at the collegiate level, if the coaches do a good job with him...I think the sky's the limit. He's already as strong, if not stronger than most college running backs. Legitimately, that's not even a discussion. I know this for a fact.
"So now, it's just learning those technical aspects of the game."
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