Penn State football’s four-headed approach to its running game has been a successful, balanced tactic through five games, but Noah Cain and Journey Brown are starting to separate themselves from the pack a bit.

The team has averaged 194.6 rushing yards per game so far this season. Although a good chunk of the team’s run game has actually come from Sean Clifford, who has 200 of the Nittany Lions’ 973 rushing yards this year, all four running backs have figured into the occasion at different points.

Brown is leading the charge with 217 yards and three scores while Cain isn’t far behind with 208 and a team-leading five touchdowns. Devyn Ford has also been productive as a true freshman, posting 198 yards and two scores so far.

A bit lower on the totem pole is Ricky Slade, who’s managed to gain just 51 yards on 24 carries. He is however tied with Journey Brown as the leading receiver among the running backs with 89 yards on seven grabs.

If you take those season-to-date statistics at face value, you may be inclined to believe that three of Penn State’s four backs are beginning to separate themselves. That isn’t the case, however, as Brown and Cain are the only ones who have consistently performed well.

Slade has struggled all year long with both consistency and turnovers, but he has, at the very least, provided a nice change of pace to the Penn State offense in the passing game. Ford’s college debut was excellent, and it’s hard to argue against a player who started his college career with 107 yards on six carries, but one of those was an 81-yard touchdown. If you take that one big play away, however, Ford has posted a much more modest 117 yards on 25 carries.

Brown’s statistics have also been inflated heavily by one run — an 85-yarder against Pitt that, if taken away, leaves the redshirt sophomore with 132 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries. However, he’s been the most consistent of Penn State’s running backs and has yet to post fewer than 20 yards of offense in one game. That might not seem all that impressive, but it’s important to note that he’s been splitting snaps with three other players.

Meanwhile, Cain has been very impressive whenever he’s touched the field. He stepped into Penn State’s week three win over Pitt and scored the eventual game-winning touchdown after racking up 40 yards on six carries against a stingy Panther defense. Cain’s numbers could be even better than they are now if James Franklin and the Penn State coaching staff didn’t make the mind-boggling decision to keep him off the field for the remainder of that game.

The true freshman proved that the series against Pitt was no fluke by putting on a show against Purdue. Penn State’s offense was lethargic and unable to create much after an early flurry of scores, but Cain once again stepped in and gave the unit a much-needed spark. He finished the Purdue game with 105 yards and a score on 12 carries, and he made a serious case for himself to move up the depth chart.

Unfortunately for Cain, that came to nothing as he’s still listed as the third name on the team’s Iowa week depth chart. Franklin listed all four players with an “OR” next to their name, which means they’ll all rotate snaps once again.

“I don’t know if we’ve gotten to the point where someone’s consistent in practice and in games that separated themselves from the pack,” Franklin said postgame. “I still think we are going to play four guys, but there could be a guy that’s the lead starter. The guy who is the starter got two series, then we went one-and-one after that, but we’ll see. I don’t want to sit here and proclaim decisions to be made before we have discussed them as a staff or with the players.”