EVANSTON-If Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald could cast a Heisman Trophy ballot, he already knows who he would vote for.

Fitzgerald not only thinks Penn State running back Saquon Barkley is the best player in the nation this year. He believes he just may be the best college running back…ever.

“You know, Barkley is maybe the best player that I've ever seen on tape,” gushed Fitzgerald at his Monday press conference. “I've played against some pretty good backs, I've coached against some pretty good backs, but he's just absolutely spectacular.”

It’s hard to argue with him. Northwestern fans should think of Barkley as Justin Jackson – if Jackson weighed 230 pounds and had elite speed.

There’s very little the sensational junior from Coplay, Pa., can’t do on a football field. He currently has seven touchdowns on the season: four rushing, two receiving, one on a 98-yard kickoff return and – get this – one passing. He leads the nation in all-purpose yards with 1,218 – 574 rushing, 386 passing and 258 on kickoff returns.

“He's great in the run game, he's great in protection, catching the ball out of the backfield, he's a great return man, he does it all and he's an outstanding football player,” said the admiring Fitzgerald.

Oh, and he’s strong too. Stronger-than-the-offensive-linemen-blocking-for-him strong. It's not often that a running back sets a team record in weightlifting, but you can see videos online of Barkley setting a Penn State mark with a 405-pound power clean or squatting 525 pounds five times.

Penn State is no one-man band, by any means. The Nittany Lions rank second to Ohio State in the Big Ten in both scoring (41.4 ppg) and total offense (471.2 ypg) and have a variety of dynamic weapons to employ.

Quarterback Trace McSorley is on every QB watch list known to man; wide receiver DaeSean Hamilton is the school’s all-time leading receiver; and tight end Mike Gesicki is a first-team preseason All-America who was hurt in the win over Indiana last Saturday.

But the star is clearly Barkley, the guy who makes the offense go.

Fitzgerald went through a laundry list of great running backs that he’s seen as a player or coach in the Big Ten, including Heisman Trophy winners Ron Dayne and Eddie George, Tshimanga Biakabutuka, and Northwestern's Damien Anderson. “There have been some dudes in this league now,” he said.

But Barkley is in a class by himself.

“To see the skill set that Barkley has, it's everything. He's great in protection. He's great running the ball. He's got great vision, he's got great balance, he's got great speed, and he's got great toughness. Amazing vision, and he's just durable, he's tough. And then he catches the ball the same way; he returns the ball the same way.”

During Northwestern’s bye week, Fitzgerald got a chance to watch Barkley work his magic in a hard-fought 21-19 win over Iowa on Sept. 23. In that game, Barkley totaled 358 all-purpose yards by running 23 times for 211 yards, catching 12 passes for 94 yards and returning three kickoffs for 53 more. There's no definitive word on whether Barkley piloted the plane back to Happy Valley after the game.

“The toughness that he showed, as a fan, we had the bye week, and I'm sitting there cheering for him like 'wow.' If I were a Penn State fan I'd be pretty stoked up. He's good," Fitzgerald remarked.

Barkley may be the leader in the Heisman race right now. He’s looking to follow up on a 2016 season that saw him collect almost 2,000 yards of total offense and three major Big Ten awards: he shared the Chicago Tribune Silver Football as the MVP with Ohio State QB J.T. Barret, and he took home the Graham-George Offensive Player of the Year and Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year awards.

So, the question was posed, if Barkley is so great, how do you stop him? Fitzgerald says the answer is in numbers.

"Well, football's an 11-man deal, right? You know, it's an 11-man operation, and obviously he's going to make plays – he has against everyone that he's played – and we've just gotta find a way to make a couple more.

“And any time you play a Big Ten game, you gotta execute, you gotta play within the framework of what you're being asked to do, we've gotta win the turnover battle. He's gonna make his plays, and we've just gotta respond, and if it's an explosive play, you know, zero points is ideal – three points you can live with, you just can't make him be seven.

“He's just a great player, and I'll be a huge fan of his after about 4 o'clock on Saturday, for the rest of the year, to win the Heisman.”