Back has slipped a bit during senior season
Happy Valley?
Penn State has hardly been that — at least this season — for running back Evan Royster.
After withdrawing from the NFL Draft to return to State College, this was to be a season for breaking records, taking bows and carrying Penn State a third straight New Year’s Day bowl — or perhaps better.
Instead, it has been a season of disappointment for Penn State (6-4), and bearing the brunt has been Royster, a target of criticism from the rabid Nittany Lions fan base.
At FedEx Field on Saturday, when Royster and Penn State face Indiana (4-6) in a rare neutral-site game, the Westfield graduate will try to forget his troubled senior year and enjoy his homecoming.
“I’m not one to complain about what has happened, whether it has been bad or not,” Royster told reporters this week. “I’m not saying I regret coming back or anything like that.”
It’s been a tough road from day one this season. First, Royster reported to camp 13 pounds overweight, drawing the ire of venerable coach Joe Paterno. Then, after getting in shape, his performance has been spotty.
Despite a career-high 187 yards in a win over Temple, Royster (783 yards) has struggled, compared to his previous two seasons when he gained 1,236 and 1,169 yards. His 5.0 yards-per-carry average is 0.7 off the figure of his junior year and 1.5 less than his breakthrough sophomore season.
Even when he rushed for 150 yards in a win over Michigan that delivered Paterno his 400th victory and made Royster the school’s all-time rushing leader, he was criticized as not in the league of previous record holder Curt Warner or several other famed Nittany Lions backs.
Early in the year, Royster went silent for three weeks, angered by the negativity, which had even reached his family in Fairfax.
When Paterno was asked this week what Royster had meant to the program, his curt answer was telling.
“I think he’s done a good job” was all Paterno offered.
