2017 was Saquon Barkley’s last year with Penn State. That was also the time when Barkley cemented himself as an NFL prospect. It all dates to the game against the Iowa team in the same year. Barkley hurdled a man, got hit in the midair, and still managed to land on the ground without losing balance. That was arguably the most athletic moment of his overall career.

Fast forward to 2024, after spending 6 seasons with the NY Giants, the Philadelphia Eagles signed Barkley. It is one of the most talked about trades in 2024 currently. The RB signed a 3-year $37.75 million deal with the Philly team. Jason Kelce, the retired legendary Eagles star, interviewed Barkley on his New Heights Podcast, where the conversation shifted to Barkley’s time at Penn State in detail and his transformation from an on-looker to an OG who offers opinions.

In an excerpt, Travis Kelce brought up the viral hurdle moment of 2017 when Penn State locked horns with Iowa. The Chiefs TE mentioned that it was easily the most impressive thing he’d seen at the time. He wanted to know about the incident from Saquon Barkley himself. In hindsight, Barkley motioned that he was “really raw lowkey” during his time at Penn State.

On the same line, the conversation shifted to Barkley’s learning and he added that he used to look at Evan Royster’s stats as he aspired to be like him back in the day. Now, recalling his past, he mentioned that he has reached the Penn State RB pinnacle where people like Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen (aka Fatman) will look up to him, just like he did Royster. Singleton and Allen are the current RBs at Penn State, who are making names for themselves.

“I’m at that point now where it’s like I was like damn but do I think myself like they are really back right there now that’s too Singleton in Fatman. But, yeah I feel like I love that though because I know what you know Royster and all those backs there like meant to me like I will look up their numbers and look up their stats,” said Barkley.

He also added, “I think it’s cool I type position now were younger backs who came to Penn State where you know, I’m the pick, I’m the pinnacle, I’m the one you got to go get and I’m not like one like you know OGs be hating now, I’m not like one of those.” His comment reflected how he wanted to allow his youngsters to face a rather different experience with the seniors than he did. Not directly stating anything, but Barkley’s comment potentially hinted at being more open to his juniors and less criticizing toward them, wanting to defeat the experience set by his own seniors.

But to his surprise, there was an OG who didn’t reflect badly on Barkley, after he saw his epic run against Iowa State in 2017.

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Barkley gets recognition from the OGs!

Just like Barkley notices the young running backs at Penn State right now, he got noticed by Ezekiel Elliott, who was the running back for the Dallas Cowboys at the time. Upon watching Barkley hurdling through the dominant run, Elliott gave Barkley a shoutout on X (formerly Twitter).

“Man is unreal @saquonb21,” said the Cowboys RB appreciating the young Heisman contender for the time. So, in a way, he got love from the veterans of the sport, from one of the greatest RBs in the league.

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The game against Iowa State paved the way for Barkley to be an NFL prospect. Fortunately, he got into the league and departed from the Giants to play with their rival team, the Philadelphia Eagles.

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