If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Penn State football silenced the noise on its running game in Week 3, dashing for 304 yards and five touchdowns with 11 different ball carriers against Buffalo. The rushing situation was easily the Nittany Lions’ biggest concern in the final week of non-conference play, and they delivered.

First off, it’s important to consider the situation from last Saturday to the final whistle against the Bulls. Carson Hansen was extremely disappointed following the Temple game, Penn State fans called for more carries for the team’s other three running backs through the entire week, and Taylor Mouser and Matt Campbell alike proved their own frustration with the ground product.

Hansen got the start once more on Saturday, but everything immediately changed halfway through the first quarter.

James Peoples found an edge down the right side on a handoff from Rocco Becht and didn’t miss the chance to score Penn State’s first touchdown of the day, or his first of the season.

Penn State's Bull-fighting is off to a good start. pic.twitter.com/DnSHrpLelh

— Onward State (@OnwardState) September 19, 2026

Rocco Becht got his two touchdowns out of the way in the first half, but every other trip into the end zone for the Nittany Lions came on the ground. Koby Howard also had a monstrous game, including a 20-yard carry off a reverse, but the day’s main focus was the running back group.

All Peoples did was open the floodgates.

Hansen finally reached the end zone on a 12-yard carry to open the third quarter, ending what seemed like a nightmare start to the season for him. After Peoples trudged his way in for an 11-yard score in the third quarter, the two-headed monster behind him and Hansen got the spotlight for the remainder of the game.

Campbell and Co. gave redshirt sophomore Quinton Martin Jr. and redshirt junior Cam Wallace their season highs in carries with a bunch of tread in the second half. Martin didn’t receive a single snap against Temple. Wallace grazed the field once but didn’t get to pound the rock.

“I feel like I definitely could be a lot more urgent because coaches seen what I can do throughout spring ball, throughout fall camp, and they just thought that I wasn’t living up to the expectation of what I could be,” Martin said postgame. “I just feel like hustling, giving everything I got every play, in and out.”

Martin said he took Week 2’s absence of playing time as motivation to go hard in practice heading into Buffalo, and it paid off. He rushed for a clean 100 yards on 10 carries, including a 61-yard sprint near the end of the first quarter.

“Main thing with coach Campbell and coach [Savon] Huggins is trust. If they don’t trust you, you won’t be out on the field. I did whatever I had to do to get them to trust me in that moment, and I got the opportunity,” Martin said.

Penn State fans largely called for Martin, among Peoples and Wallace, to get more carries as the squad struggled to get the run game going. He flashed brilliance in the backfield in Penn State’s Pinstripe Bowl win over Clemson, rushing for 101 yards on 20 carries.

“If you ask Q[uinton], Q would tell you [he had] maybe one of his best weeks at practice, and I think he took that into the ability to execute at a really high rate on the football field,” Campbell said postgame.

Martin finished as Penn State’s leading rusher against the Bulls, which, paired with Peoples’ two scores, could shake up Hansen’s involvement going forward. After all, Hansen finished with 37 yards on just five carries, 22 yards below Peoples, 40 yards below Wallace, and 63 below Martin. He also received the fewest carries of the four backs.

Wallace really turned heads in the second half, crafting an effective performance out of his eight carries. He rushed for 77 yards and a highlight-reel 59-yard score early in the final frame, taking an aggressive cut and making the Buffalo defense look silly.

“We kind of took on the challenge of last week of not living up to the standard, but coming in this week, actually dialed into the little details, the little things that we could critique each and every day,” Wallace said.

Even with the encouragement of rushing for 273 yards between the four of them, Wallace and the group are focused on “not drinking the Kool-Aid.” They have to put their heads down and continue working, from perimeter blocking to picking out holds and protecting Becht. Big Ten play is up next. Hansen, Peoples, Martin, and Wallace know the importance they hold in Penn State finding its full flow on offense.

Campbell and Wallace made sure to note that the running performance against Buffalo doesn’t mean that the problem is solved. Penn State has to replicate these results week in and week out to prove it to the fanbase.

The group isn’t letting that pressure diverge from their mission, though. They’re a team just trying to build off of each other.

“Those are my brothers. We’re a family for sure. We motivate each other each and every day,” Martin said. “Watching each other make plays, seeing the reads, it just gives us energy to go out there and be successful ourselves.”

At the end of the day, though, it is a competition that is still awaiting an answer after three games. Who will be RB1 against Wisconsin? All four of them have a case. The Badgers will help gauge the solution soon enough.