Special teams bring excitement
Nittany Lions strong in kicking game
Over the next couple of months, there will be many discussions about various aspects of the 2020 Penn State football team. Fans will want to know how Sean Clifford will adapt to new offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarocca. They’ll also want to see how defenders like Micah Parsons, Lamont Wade, and Tariq Castro-Fields make the defense great.
They’ll want to know if this the year the Nittany Lions topple the Goliath in scarlet and gray from Ohio.
If James Franklin is going to hoist the national championship trophy, the men above and numerous more will make contributions. As famous as the stars are, the games that matter could come down to Jordan Stout and Jake Pinegar.
When the Nittany Lions need a 55-yard field goal with three seconds left, Stout is standing there waiting for the opportunity. Stout will also be the guy when the team needs that perfectly angled punt that gets downed at the 1-yard line. The redshirt junior thrives on the versatility that he hopes will take him to the next level.
“I pride myself as a combo guy,” Stout said on a Zoom chat with reporters. “Kicking, punting and kicking off, and holding this year, too. My goal is to make it to the NFL. So I think the best way for me to make it to the NFL is exactly what I’m doing now — punting, kicking off, and hitting long field goals to show NFL teams I can do all three. The best way to make it to the NFL is punting and kicking off.”
Stout had 66 touchbacks in his 83 kickoffs last year. He was also 2-for-3 on field goal attempts from 50 yards or longer.
So, Stout will handle the kicks over 50 yards. The rest belong to Pinegar.
The Iowa native was 11-for-12 on field goals, with a long of 47 yards. Pinegar improved from a 16-for-24 performance as a freshman the previous season.
“I had to step my game up and take my game to a different level,” Pinegar said. “But I think a lot of it, too, was just me being there for another year, having another year of experience under my belt, knowing what to expect, just being more comfortable out there.”
The pair are working out with long snapper Chris Stoll at State College High School after they lift weights. They get their cardio work done at Holuba Hall on the Penn State campus.
Stout does a routine that includes several punts and field goal attempts. He has to gauge the proper amount of work so it doesn’t lead to overuse.
“In a normal day I hit about 30 punts and 10 to 20 field goals,” Stout said. “But I was probably there for an hour and a half doing that because I would be doing drills. I do a lot of drills because kickers can’t kick that much. It’s just like a pitcher in baseball.”
Pinegar mostly focuses on his field goal kicking while making sure his motion is smooth.
“A big part of this offseason is just correcting the small things,” Pinegar said. “I needed to work on my approach, my stance, and my steps. It’s about smoothing things out to where it’s just more trying to get to that muscle memory stage. Probably the biggest thing that I’m working on right now is just little small details to my approach and my swing.”
Pinegar also knows that none of the work will matter if the team doesn’t continue to flatten the curve with the COVID19 pandemic.
“Everybody has emphasized the importance of washing your hands all the time,” Pinegar said. “It’s about staying clean, disinfecting everything, staying apart.
They are preaching to us, ‘Do the obvious and don’t put yourself in those situations where you’re putting yourself or your teammates at risk of the virus.’ ”
While many programs around the nation have reported positive COVID-19 cases, the Nittany Lions don’t have any they’ve made public yet. Pinegar knows that to stay safe, everyone in the program will have to cooperate.
“Players are buying in and being smart about it,” Pinegar said. “Everything that is set up for us, there is almost zero risk of getting that. That has helped no players test positive and everybody be safe and sound, so far.”
If we want to see football, let’s hope that the young kicker is right.