Will Levis paid the bumps and bruises little mind as he met the media following his first win as a college quarterback, still riding the adrenaline and endorphins from Penn State’s 27-6 win over Rutgers.

But he left reporters with a guarantee: He’d be sore in the morning after carrying the ball 17 times for 108 yards.

“It’s kind of the first time I’ve been apart of an offense that really relies on me to run like that,” Levis said. “To show to myself that I can be the guy who can run the ball is really cool.”

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Levis has made that ability clear to himself and anyone else that has watched Penn State over the last couple weeks.

He hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire throwing the ball, completing eight of his 14 attempts for 81 yards, a touchdown, and an interception against Rutgers.

But Levis’ ability to run the ball has proven to be an energizing force for Penn State — which is especially remarkable considering Levis estimated he never ran for more than 40 or so yards in high school.

The redshirt freshman signal caller stabilized a stagnant Penn State offense with his running ability last week against Ohio State after starter Sean Clifford left with an injury.

When James Franklin elected to call Levis’s number instead of a physically limited Clifford Saturday, Levis again fell back on the run when not much else was working for the Nittany Lions’ offense.

“He ran the ball well,” Franklin said. “Ran the ball hard and physical.”

“I’m pretty north-and-south,” Levis admitted.

But on Saturday, Levis was explosive, too.

He broke off runs of 14, 30 and 49 yards en route to his big day, but he was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t finish what he started.

“There’s a couple runs that I probably could have taken to the house if I was maybe a tenth of a second faster,” Levis said with a smile.

Franklin said he thought Levis was pressing early on in the game, as Penn State’s offense collected just 32 yards on its first 12 plays from scrimmage.

There was some adjusting taking place for everyone on the Nittany Lions’ offense in the early going, noted Journey Brown, who led the way for Penn State offensively.

“Just getting used to [Levis’s] steps and stuff with the mesh with the handoffs because we’re so used to [Clifford],” Brown said of the adjustment he had to make. “It was a little different, just getting into the groove of things.

“It would be like if you were dancing to a beat, and they switched the beat. You got to catch the beat again.”

Once Brown and Levis finally caught their rhythm, the result was nothing short of a melody, with the duo becoming the first to rush for 100 yards in a single game for Penn State since 2015.

The Nittany Lions totaled 333 yards of offense, and 211 of them came from the legs of Levis and Brown, who has now broken the century mark in three of Penn State’s last four games.

“I knew this opportunity was going to show itself,” Brown said. “Regardless of when it was going to, I knew when it came that I was going to be ready for it. I prepared for these moments, and that’s why I’ve been doing so well.”

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