Jordan Stout made a strong first impression at Penn State last year with his booming kickoffs and long-distance field goals. Now he’s got a chance to impact the team in another way.
Stout, who served primarily as the Nittany Lions’ kickoff specialist in 2019 after transferring in from Virginia Tech, is set to become their punter following Blake Gillikin’s graduation.
Describing the junior from Cedar Bluff, Va., as “a combo guy,” special teams coordinator Joe Lorig said he’s confident that Stout can handle multiple roles.
Lorig said that Penn State had intended to take a punter in its most recent recruiting class, with Gillikin set to depart after the 2019 season. But while the staff scouted some of the top high school punting prospects in the country, they couldn’t find anyone who fit the bill as well as Stout.
“It turns out, from watching Jordan in the fall and through the summer last year, we wouldn’t have gotten a punter who was better than him anyway,” Lorig said. “I don’t think there’s any question that Jordan is good enough to fill in for Blake. Obviously, Blake was fantastic. That’s not to minimize his value. I just think Jordan is that good also.”
Gillikin left Penn State with the school’s second-best career punting average at 43.03 yards per attempt. The Lions had struggled at the position prior to his arrival, but Gillikin solved those problems immediately and went on to start every game of his four-year career.
The last time Stout punted was at Honaker High School, where he averaged 47 yards per attempt in 2016. Asking him to take over for Gillikin will require some dexterity on the part of the coaching staff, especially since the rising junior has a fourth role as a holder for Jake Pinegar on shorter field goal attempts.
“It’s just going to be [a matter of] making sure that we manage him being able to do the kickoffs, the long field goals and the punts, and what does that look like?” Lorig said. “Not a lot of people do that. Oklahoma a couple of years ago had a guy [Austin Seibert] who did all three. He was drafted. I think that Jordan is a similar caliber of talent. It’s just going to be managing the workload on him and making sure that if he becomes a great punter that we don’t have any drop-off on kickoffs, because we were really, really good at that last year. Making sure that we manage the workload throughout the season, the off-season, game weeks, fall camp, all those things [will be important]. I really put it in baseball terms. What’s the right pitch count per day to make sure that a guy can stay healthy and do both? So I’m excited about Jordan. I think he’s going to do a really, really good job. He’s very talented, and I’m really thankful that we took him last year.”
Lorig said that Stout’s versatility has allowed the staff to be choosy when it comes to recruiting another punter. The Lions didn’t feel like they had to take one in 2020, and that decision could end up paying off down the road. Said Lorig, “There are some fantastic punters in this year’s class and in next year’s class who we’ve identified and who I think we’ll all be really excited about.”
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