Ranking Penn State's 12 biggest winners so far this season

ALTOONA, Pa. -- There's an abundance of good news right now for the Penn State program after a 3-0 start, and by far the biggest winners are the fans, who were hoping for exactly this after going 11-11 the past two years.

James Franklin also is a gigantic winner so far. He needed this in order to turn the corner after the recent struggles, although he was already a big winner thanks to that new 10-year, $85 million contract.

In putting together this list of Penn State's 12 biggest winners through three games, I decided not to include Franklin, since that really is a given with the head coach. Also, not including him in the list allowed me to add one more deserving person, so that's only fair.

1. RB NICHOLAS SINGLETON

Sure, big things were expected from the national Gatorade High School Player of the Year. But no one would have expected the best start to a career of any Penn State running back ever, or the best start to a season by any running back since Larry Johnson in 2002.

Singleton electrified the Beaver Stadium crowd in just his second-career game, going for 179 yards and two long touchdowns on 10 carries against Ohio. He then went for 124 yards and two scores on 10 carries at Auburn.

With 334 yards on only 30 carries, he leads the nation in yards per carry (11.1) and already has become a household name in college football. Sort of like Saquon Barkley did in 2015.

Penn State's offense lacked explosive plays in the running game last year, which was a huge problem. Singleton has solved that problem.

2. MANNY DIAZ

What are the odds that DIaz will be hired as a head coach somewhere in about 2 1/2 months?

I'll go 75%.

Diaz looks to be a short-timer at Penn State because his defense already has proven to be very effective, which most people expected when he was hired after spending three seasons as Miami's head coach.

When he was hired to succeed Brent Pry, now head coach at Virginia Tech, there was no reason to believe Diaz would be at Penn State longer than two seasons. That timetable has already been sped up.

Everything about the guy says head coach, including his demeanor, leadership, people skills and football knowledge.

There will be major programs looking for a head coach after this season, and as long as Penn State's defense continues to play well, Diaz's name is sure to be mentioned for several openings. Now, whether he takes any job will depend on which schools are involved, how good of a job it is and if Diaz believes he might get something better by being a little patient.

Defensive end Adisa Isaac said Diaz has made a big impact on the program.

"He brings a lot of fire to us, he has us playing fast, physical, try to make us not think a lot," Isaac said. "So that definitely helps take take the stress off of us and just let us show our gifts and show what God gave us. It's a great system. I love it."

3. LT OLU FASHANU

I can make a strong case for Fashanu to be No. 1 on this list based only on the following story:

That's from Dane Brugler, NFL draft analyst for The Athletic, and he included Fashanu as a possible-first round draft pick next year.

it would be absolutely incredible if Fashanu (6-6, 308), a sophomore and first-year starter, could indeed become a first-round draft pick. But the mere fact that he's even being mentioned in that high of regard after only three games is remarkable in of itself.

Fashanu obviously has played very well and turned a lot of heads. He's a great story, as we detailed here last week.

4. QB SEAN CLIFFORD

He's not quite having a Kenny Pickett-type senior season, and it was doubtful that he ever would. But Clifford has played well, and if we're going to be the kind of sporting society that rips the QB when the team loses, then we have to credit the QB when the team wins.

Clifford nearly single-handled lost the Purdue game with his awful pick-six. But then he led the offense right down the field in the final minutes and won the game on a TD pass to Keyvone Lee. That drive turned out to be a huge catalyst for this team, and the Lions have played great ever since.

Is Clifford an NFL quarterback? No.

But, if you give him a running game, he is good enough to be a solid college quarterback who can lead his team to a lot of wins. It's nice for him in his sixth year that he's getting to enjoy a great start and renewed hope for a strong season.

5. QB DREW ALLAR

This is a list of biggest winners so far, and Allar absolutely deserves to be on it and ranked highly.

Who knows how much more he will play as the Big Ten schedule gets under way. But through three games, Allar already has done enough to make everyone think that Penn State's future is in very good hands.

And, he has already played enough to keep him happy and engaged in the program, which is a must nowadays with young quarterbacks.

We may never know how close the competition was in the preseason between Allar and Christian Veilleux for QB2 job. But Franklin made a phenomenal decision going with the prized freshman, and then also to give him a lot of work in the Ohio game, when Allar threw two TDs.

Had Allar been sitting on the bench this whole time, possibly as the No. 3 QB, you just never know how he would be feeling about his future at Penn State. The way things have worked out, he and everyone else have to feel great about that future.

6. MIKE YURCICH

The second-year offensive coordinator has done an excellent job calling plays. The schemes and formations have been good, and Penn State's offense now looks like it could be dangerous this season.

Adding a home run hitting running back such as Singleton has helped in a massive way. Yurcich and the Lions just didn't have that last year, and the offensive line was a big problem. But this looks like a situation where you fix one problem, and all of a sudden, everything else starts clicking.

Yurcich received a lot of criticism last year, and rightfully so. But give the guy a lot of credit for making a big jump in Year 2.

"He's done a fantastic job," Clifford said of Yurcich. "It's nice to be able to balance each other out and really help each other throughout the week to get to the point on Saturday. Just the communication between us, it's very open, very honest communication. I'm not saying that it wasn't last year, but just second year, I've never had that before. So just being able to say like, 'Hey, I really just don't feel comfortable with a play or call this play,' that changes the game for me personally. And he's super receptive to it. It's helping us out a lot."

7. LB ABDUL CARTER

The true freshman was given the famed No. 11 jersey, and we've quickly learned why. Carter already has the look of a big-time difference maker on defense.

He was ejected on a bad targeting call after only a couple of plays in his debut at Purdue but has been outstanding the past two games. The 6-foot-3, 233-pounder has 11 tackles, one forced fumble and one pass breakup.

Carter's future is incredibly bright.

Franklin had this great stuff to say about Carter on Tuesday:

"It starts with the fact that he's freakishly fast, freakishly strong and doesn't have the body of a normal high school linebacker coming in. I remember talking to him throughout the recruiting process after he had signed, and him and his dad were asking about weight. I'm like, you're plenty big now. I think they felt like they had to put on more weight. No, you're plenty big enough now. It's about strength and things like that.

"But I will say a couple things: I think his dad, specifically, and his family have done a really good job raising him. One of the things that has really helped him, these physical traits we talked about, but his dad talked about his maturity and his focus, and he's exactly right. His maturity and focus for a guy his age is impressive.

"He is a very disciplined young man. Comes from a disciplined family. I know his mom is really happy that he's at Penn State. When we went to do the home visit, and I'm not exaggerating, when you walk in the house, hardwood floors, and the weight room is set up getting him ready for Penn State right when you walk into the house in the living room, and he's like power cleaning and dropping the barbell on hardwood floors. I know she was happy when he came to Penn State because she was able to get that stuff I think back into the basement. But just very focused, very determined, very driven. Just like dad told me."

8. CB JOEY PORTER JR. AND S JI'AYIR BROWN

These are two potential first-round picks, so everyone expected big things from them.

But when it comes to being winners early in the season, we cannot overlook their value to the strong defense.

Porter was named the Bednarik Award national defensive player of the week after the opener at Purdue, and Brown is this week's national Nagurski defensive player of the week for his performance at Auburn.

When you have two studs like this in the secondary, it gives Diaz a whole lot of options on defense.

9. PHIL TRAUTWEIN

The offensive line coach looked me in the eyes in June and said, "I know how to run the ball."

OK, so we all wanted to see him prove it. Because after what we saw last year, Trautwein entered the season with a whole lot to prove.

Give the guy a lot of credit, because the offensive line has played pretty well so far. Yes, there have been some issues, and we'll have to see how the unit does once we hit the Big Ten slate.

Singleton's big day against Ohio seemed to be mostly about his speed around the outside. But the Lions' 245 yards rushing at Auburn were due in large part to solid blocking by the linemen and tight ends.

Just like with Yurcich, this is a big year for Trautwein to prove his coaching value at Penn State. And just like with Yurcich, the O-line coach has gotten off to a great start.

Franklin, though, still is hesitant to give a lot of praise to the line. He was asked about it again Tuesday and said:

"I'm still not ready. I'm going to hold off. Like I also mentioned, you guys will clearly tell me how they're playing.

"Obviously, I do think this past weekend with zero sacks and being able to run the ball the way we ran the ball and being on the road and handle crowd noise, which can be challenging for an offensive line, I do think it was a step in the right direction. But we still have work to do and I'm still not ready to pound the table. But I probably won't be all year long, because I know as soon as I say something positive, something won't go well. So, I'm going to hold my thoughts."

10. DE CHOP ROBINSON

How about this impressive accolade from the Maryland transfer:

So, Brown was named the national defensive player of the week by the Nagurski folks, while Robinson was the highest-graded defender in the nation. That's some kind of statement by the Penn State defense to have two guys perform so well at Auburn.

Robinson is a problem for people to defend. He has one sack, two tackles for loss, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and one pass breakup. That's what you call a stat stuffer.

11. WR MITCHELL TINSLEY

I predicted before the season that Tinsley could end up being the Lions' No. 1 receiver, not Parker Washington, who received more praise entering the year.

The transfer from Western Kentucky has indeed been the best receiver through three games. He has 13 catches for 158 yards and three TDs. Washington has 10 catches for 148 yards and no scores.

Tinsley came to Penn State to prove to NFL scouts that he can play at that level, and that his Western Kentucky stats weren't a fluke. So far, so good for Tinsley.

12. P BARNEY AMOR

Let's show the punter some love!

Amor not only got put on scholarship -- by Eli Manning no less -- he's also been fantastic so far. He's averaging 46.5 yards on his 14 punts, with six going for more than 50.