Penn State’s Miles Sanders has a Saquon Barkley-sized pair of shoes to fill at running back this season.

Comparisons between No. 26, who’s off to the NFL as a likely top-ten draft pick, and Sanders are only natural as Sanders prepares to take on the starting job left behind by Barkley. In limited snaps, Sanders has impressed, averaging 6.7 yards per carry through his first two seasons in Happy Valley.

Sanders and Barkley are very similar players in terms of style. Both have high elusiveness and speed, but an underrated aspect of Sanders’ game is his power. Perhaps his strongest attribute is his straight-line speed, something Penn State’s defense is extremely familiar with.

“Well, Saquon was more power and shiftiness,” defensive end Ryan Buchholz said. “With Miles, it’s definitely his speed. He’ll beat you to the spot, he’ll beat you around the edge, and he’ll run right by you. Obviously, we can’t tackle him right now, but he definitely has some power in him.”

Head coach James Franklin is pleased with the job Sanders has done in his new role. Franklin praised Sanders’s patience, but also gave him credit for always having an itch to get out on the field despite being behind a talent like Saquon Barkley.

“He’s been patient, but there’s also a part where he’s been really impatient at times,” Franklin said. “That’s how I want it. I want him to be hungry to get on the field. I think he’s handled things the right way and grown dramatically.”

Franklin knows that Sanders, who was recruited as a five-star prospect, could have transferred and played in a number of other places, but he’s glad the Pittsburgh native decided to stick around and wait for his time to come.

“I think he obviously could’ve played at a lot of places the last two years,” Franklin said. “The combination of how he did play, how he prepared, and who he was behind, training and learning all of those championship behaviors, I think he’s pretty far along right now. Our team thinks very highly of him because of what he did in the weight room and what he’s done on the field.”

Sanders has worked on his footwork in the backfield with new running backs coach JaJuan Seider throughout spring practice. The running back never had trouble with patience while waiting to take the full-time starting job, and the competition he had motivated him to work even harder.

“[Waiting] just made me work harder,” Sanders said. “Saquon [Barkley] was a great mentor ever since I got here. Learning from him and picking up little ideas from him helped me be the best player I can be.”

Sanders and the Nittany Lions will be back on the field of Beaver Stadium in just nine days for the annual Blue-White spring scrimmage on Saturday, April 21.