Set to assume punting duties, Jordan Stout is ready for increased workload
Jordan Stout has been preparing for what will likely be an increased workload this season since he first started playing football during his sophomore year of high school.
He’s always strived to be what he calls a “combo guy,” capable of kicking and punting at a high level. After showing off his big leg on kickoffs and long field goal attempts during his first season with the Nittany Lions a year ago, Stout will likely be relied on to fill the boots of Blake Gillikin this season.
“Just based on our depth chart situation, we need him to be our punter and we think he can be,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said. “We were going to sign a punter in the last class but we just really couldn’t find anybody that was a no-brainer that we felt comfortable offering, knowing in our back pocket that we thought [Stout] could do it.”
Stout, who arrived in State College last season after transferring from Virginia Tech, attempted three field goals for the Nittany Lions last season, nailing two of them — both from over 50 yards out.
His impact on kickoffs was also strong, with 66 touchbacks on 83 kickoffs. Stout was so automatic at times that Penn State’s coaching staff publicly wondered about complacency within members of the coverage team, and whether it would show on the off chance that a Stout kickoff did yield a return.
With Gillikin in the fold, Penn State had no reason to turn to Stout in the punting game. In fact, Stout has never attempted a punt in his collegiate career — but that doesn’t intimidate him.
“I feel like I’ve been preparing for this ever since I started,” Stout said.
Stout has been diligent about making himself as versatile as possible, even working on holding with the knowledge that he might take over for Gillikin in that area, too. Stout says he wants to play in the NFL, and the best way to get there is through excellence in multiple areas of the kicking game.
Whether or not he will fill all of those rolls on Saturdays is uncertain, Franklin said. He thinks fellow kicker Jake Pinegar or even Rafael Checa could handle Penn State’s kickoff duties, if needed.
But, he admitted, Stout could very well force his way into a hefty workload.
“It’s just hard to take somebody off the field that’s maybe arguably the best in the country at it,” Franklin said. “We just got to balance all that well.”
Stout said he hasn’t spoken with special teams coach Joe Lorig about whether he might find himself tied to a “pitch count” of sorts this season, but Lorig intends to get that sorted out.
“That’s one of the things that I’ve spent a lot of my offseason studying,” Lorig said. “ And really, a lot of times, it's keeping them from themselves. A guy like Jordan Stout is such a competitor, such a winner. Every day he goes out to practice, he's gonna be trying to win the dang national championship. Well, you got to manage that. So how do you manage that?
“In a perfect world, usually, you have a kicker, a punter, and a field goal guy. But the best guy is gonna start at each one. So my expectation is that there's zero drop-off. I'm not going to have Jordan be the punter and then we have a big drop-off on kickoff. That's not going to happen.”
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