Following the heartbreaking CFP Semifinal defeat against Notre Dame, the Penn State Nittany Lions are looking to go the extra mile during the 2025 season. The recipe for success in Happy Valley is clear: run the football, as the team has become a force to be reckoned with thanks to its ground game. In hopes of taking the rushing attack to the next level, head coach James Franklin has reportedly set his sight in a former Dallas Cowboys star and NFL OPOY to join the staff.
Although the season ended a long time ago for Penn State, the school in State College has been put back on the map thanks to Saquon Barkley’s unreal year with the Philadelphia Eagles, en route to the franchise’s second Super Bowl win. Barkley’s season brought the spotlight to his alma mater and vindicated any running back recruit considering heading to Penn State.
Moreover, James Franklin is searching for a running backs coach to join his staff, after Ja’Juan Seider took a job at Notre Dame. Franklin may already have his preferred option in a former Cowboys star, who won the NFL AP’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2014.
“Oklahoma assistant DeMarco Murray and Penn State have been in communication about the Nittany Lions’ open running backs job,” as stated per On3.
Exciting opportunity
Murray would be taking over one of the most explosive running backs room in the NCAA. With the likes of Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, the duo poses a unique one-two punch in Penn State’s backfield. Allen and Singleton rushed for 2,207 combined rushing yards during the 2024 season, and will both be returning to Happy Valley in 2025.
As a running backs coach with the Oklahoma Sooners, Murray helped develop Rhamondre Stevenson and could help the next generation of college football talent reach new heights if he joins Franklin at Penn State.
Playing career
After an electric four-year stay in Norman in which he finished with 3,685 rushing yards and 50 touchdowns, Murray was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys with the 71st overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft. Murray had his best performance during the 2014 season as he finished the campaign with 1,845 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, along with 416 receiving yards.
Murray was voted the NFL AP OPOY for his season, however, he’d leave the Cowboys to join the Eagles. Murray would retire after the 2017 season at 29 years old after spending his last two seasons with the Tennessee Titans.