Jordan Stout is confident that PSU's field goal game is better; here's why

Eyebrows were raised when Jordan Stout performed every special teams job during Penn State's win at Wisconsin.

Then, questions were asked about whether or not that was a good idea after he missed a pair of field goals plus an extra point over the season's first two weeks.

The placement kicking game has normalized,for the most part, but the kicker, kickoff specialist, and punter has missed a point-after try since and split a pair of 50-yard kicks while drilling a shorter one against Villanova for a six-of-nine field goal mark on the year.

It's not unfair for Nittany Lions fans to be nervous about that part of the game still ahead of Saturday's matchup with Iowa. A close game is expected, which means every point will count. The good news, then, is that Stout, speaking to reporters on Wednesday, believes a true 50-yard boot in the Indiana game indicates that things are now where they need to be after the earlier struggles.

"We just haven't come together as a unit, so far this season, and that's something we fixed last week, and since last week, I felt so much better about it," Stout said.

Why?

"A big part of it was, I kind of slowed my approach down," Stout continued. "I think I've been trying to hit the ball 100 miles per hour, and you don't need to do that. I have the leg to hit from 50 [yards out] If I'm hitting 30 percent, which is what I should have been doing from the beginning.

"I think another thing is our operation has been much, much better. The snaps have been perfect, the hold's been perfect, and then that leads me to be able to hit a perfect kick. It wasn't bad. the first few games. It was just a little uncertainty, each game, but we have that completely fixed, and it's awesome."

Fans will have to take the veteran from Virginia who joined the Lions a few seasons back as a transfer from Virginia Tech at his word, but it goes without saying that from just the eye test alone, the operation has appeared better over the last couple of games compared to the first few, even with the miss against the Wildcats.

Field goal kicking has been the lone area of uncertainty for Stout, as he consistently kicks touchbacks and has been one of the nation's best punters. He has twice been named the Big Ten's specialist of the week this season and was the Ray Guy Award's punter of the week for Week 5.

All of those past successes and failures won't matter, though, if things don't run smoothly in Iowa City and beyond. But, the Nittany Lions have a fully confident do-everything specialist at the start of October, and that counts for something ahead of Saturday.

"There are some high spots and there are some low spots," Stout said. "Overall, I would like to be doing great in all three aspects, where I think I'm just doing that in two right now, but I feel like that's something I've been working on and I'll get better as the season goes on."

FOX will televise Saturday's Penn State-Iowa matchup. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. ET at Kinnick Stadium.

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