Let the “Hunt for Redd October” puns begin. Only Bobby Rainey of Western Kentucky has had more rushing yards in this month 569-566 then Silas Redd of #21 Penn State. The 5-10, 209 lb sophomore back is even ahead of Alabama’s Trent Richardson, who’s considered a current front runner for the Heisman.
The Nittany Lions tailback has had four straight 100 yards games, and at Northwestern he had 119 by halftime. Redd is a huge reason the Lions are proving the doubters wrong. And he’s becoming the star player on a team that most people believe isn’t a legit 7-1.
“There’s a lot of negativity out there. They don’t even know why we’re 7-1, and our motto has been trying to prove people wrong,” Redd said.
The speed and power back replaced Evan Royster, Penn State’s all-time leading rusher. Redd learned quite a bit from him.
“One of the grad assistants types up a blocking scheme sheet on all of the opponents each week. Evan prided himself on paying a lot of attention to that and watching a lot of film. If you pay attention where your lineman are going, you’ll see the holes a lot better an a lot quicker,” Redd explained of Royster’s tutelage.
Royster was a really special back, especially when you realize that he was the leading rusher at a school that produced Larry Csonka, Curtis Enis, Larry Johnson, Blair Thomas, Ki-Jana Carter and many more.
Of course, they all had a lot of great OLs too.
“It’s a pleasure to run behind those guys. Kudos to my line they did a great job from the start and didn’t let up until there were four zeroes on the clock,” Redd said about his group of big uglies.
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