Notebook: Excited by potential, RBs coach Ja'Juan Seider assesses room
With Journey Brown and Noah Cain leading the way, Ja’Juan Seider believed the Nittany Lions’ backfield to be the nation’s best entering the 2020 season.
Meeting with reporters Wednesday night midway through Penn State football’s first week of spring practices, the running backs coach described a group propelled by more than just talent. “It wasn’t just about the skill set, it was a mindset,” Seider said. “They felt like they were the best player when they touched the field. That’s what football is, is a belief, that I am the guy, and I am the best player on the field, and we lost that.”
Losing Brown to a career-ending heart condition that was discovered weeks before the start of the season, then Cain for the year just a few plays into the first game, what’d been a true strength of the Nittany Lions became something else entirely.
Determined to restore that confidence within his group, Seider announced that while his assertion regarding the unit might not be the same with a new cast of characters including freshmen Keyvone Lee and Caziah Holmes, plus rising junior Devyn Ford, graduate transfer John Lovett and, eventually, the return of Cain, he’s still excited about the possibilities for 2021. “I’m excited about this whole group, and I think you guys will be too,” Seider said. “I think we got a chance to be pretty good. I don’t know how good yet, but I’m excited about what they’re going to show on this field.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at Seider’s evaluations of the group as a whole as it progresses through its spring practices, saving Seider’s comments on Cain for its own story:
Devyn Ford - 5-foot-11, 196 pounds
Seider could not have been more clear about the importance of the coming days, weeks, and months for Ford.
Bottom line, if Ford is going to assert himself as a feature back with the Nittany Lions coming off an injury-plagued 2020 season in which he saw action in six games, rushing for 274 yards and three scores on 67 carries, that time is now.
“With Devyn, we say it every year, he is one of the most talented kids on our team, even as a running back. But at some point, we got to stop talking about how talented you are and you got to put it together. You got to put it together for a whole season,” Seider said. “I thought he did some really good stuff for us. I thought he played well versus Ohio State. I thought he did some good stuff versus Nebraska. In the Rutgers game, he came back off of injury. Then he got hurt. And then when you open the door for young guys, they took advantage of it.
“So for him, it's just being able to put a whole season together. I still believe in that kid. I think he brings a presence to what we do offensively, running the ball, catching the ball, in the return game. I still believe in his potential as a player. Now we just got to get it.”
Praising Ford for taking strides in the classroom and his maturity as a whole, saying his attention to off-the-field concerns opens the door to an easier on-the-field performance, Seider said the opportunity is in front of Ford for the taking.
“We all talk about potential. Potential is nothing if you don't tap into it,” Seider said. “It's time for him to take the next step. It's gonna be his third year.
“You can see the maturity taking over in him. He's starting to calm down. He's starting to focus on himself, being a better student, which is going to allow you to be a better football player.”
Keyvone Lee - 6-foot, 238 pounds
Lee returns as Penn State’s leading rusher from the 2020 season, coming off a true freshman campaign in which he picked up 438 yards and four touchdowns on 89 attempts for the year despite not taking on a feature role until the midpoint of the year.
That breakout performance at Michigan, the team’s first win of the year, saw Lee collect 134 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries. According to Seider, it was an important moment not only for Lee as an individual but also for the program and team as a whole given its struggles to that point in the year.
“We were in a funk offensively as a team, and it was good to go in Michigan and watch those kids come out of their shell,” Seider said. “To watch Keyvone, who was a big reason why I think we won that game. We finally got the ground game going. We all know we're a better team when we're able to run the ball.”
Using that performance to earn double-digit carries in Penn State’s final three games the rest of the way, Lee built on it to position himself as one of the top backs on the roster this spring.
Checking in at a robust 238 pounds, Lee’s weight isn’t of concern to Seider, who said it is likely to change as the spring and summer progress.
“The weight hasn't been a problem for him,” Seider said. “You look at his lower half... he was probably about 240 last year, so he's got more lean mass on him because of the weightlifting and winter conditioning. He'll drop weight as we get in spring practice and summer running where we get down in weight.”
Caziah Holmes - 5-11, 210 pounds
Initially garnering buzz in the program last winter thanks to his early-enrollment and subsequent winter workout and conditioning session, Holmes saw a steady diet of carries through the Nittany Lions’ first four games.
However, that production became something of a seesaw through the course of the season, picking up 50 yards on four carries at Nebraska, making 10 carries in the win at Michigan, then trailing off for just 13 yards on the ground against Rutgers and Michigan State combined before returning for a career-high 77 yards on 12 carries and, most important, a pair of rushing touchdowns in the season-ending win against Illinois.
According to Seider, Holmes’ production against the Illini and then cashing in with two scores proved to be a significant moment for the true freshman back.
“I was proud of Caziah the last game. Getting in that end zone for him was huge, he scored twice in that game, and was able to run with confidence,” Seider said. “It's so much pressure on these kids. They're all highly recruited and they think it's gonna be easy. And then you come to a room where there are some athletes, and you weren't expecting to play and all of a sudden, your number was called and now you got to not only go play, you got to go be the guy, and I thought those kids down the stretch did a great job of handling that.”
Joining Lee in using that experience and confidence as a springboard into the program’s 2021 spring session, Holmes similarly has an opportunity to grab the position and run with it, Seider said.
“You can see their confidence now of feeling like they belong on this team. I'm excited to see what they do this spring,” Seider said. “Do they take the next step or do they fall behind? Because, my challenge to them is, in this room, we got four or five guys that… started a college football game.
“I mean, this thing is wide open. Who's going to compete? Are we going to take a backseat once Noah comes or are we gonna push Noah for the job? That's been the mentality. I tell all kids, you don't take a backseat to (anybody). You compete, and you get what you earn, and I think we're in a great place overall with the whole room.”
John Lovett - 6-foot, 210 pounds
The least-known quantity in the room this spring, Lovett joined the Nittany Lions after a four-year career at Baylor.
According to Seider, though, Lovett’s experience and maturity have immediately proven to be assets in the room.
“I expect some leadership, He's a senior who took the leap of faith to come here to Penn State. I like how he's done a great job of fitting in the room, not trying to put his stuff above guys or beneath guys, so he has bonded with the guys in the room,” Seider said. “I think he's gonna bring some explosion to the offense. You can tell he's a guy who played a lot of games. Now he's just trying to find his way.
“Anytime you transfer into a new school, you're trying to get to know guys. The good thing with starting a new system is that all guys learn at the same time. With him being in the Big 12, he's been in part one these offenses a little bit, so he's gonna have a good background of picking the stuff up that we're doing now.”
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