Blue White Illustrated

B L U E - W H I T E G A M E P R E V I E W sive backs to handle the punt-return job now that Thompkins has graduated. One thing is for sure: We won't get any insight during the Blue-White Game into how that competition is shaping up. If the past is any indication, there will be little if any live kicking on Satur- day. The Lions also have one of the coun- try's better punters in senior Blake Gillikin, who will be starting for the fourth consecutive season. And they have a kicker in Jake Pinegar who got off to a promising start as a true freshman last season, hitting 16 of 24 attempts, including a Big Ten-best five makes from 40 yards or more. FRANKLIN SAYS "It's not like Joe is coming in and learning how we've done special teams, al- though there are a lot of parallels to how we've done it over the past eight years, a lot of similar philoso- phies with me and him. He's coming in to install [his sys- tem]. … He's just getting more comfort- able with our organizational structure – how we do things. But really, a lot of the things that he believes in and how he operates are how we've already done it. So the transition has been pretty good." ANALYSIS Lorig has said that special teams are one facet of college football in which rapid improvement is a realistic goal. The learning curve isn't as steep as it is on offense and defense, so if you've got a group of great young athletes who may not have absorbed all the intricacies of their primary positions, you can put them on the kicking units and let them take advantage of their natural abilities. Because there's less of a tendency to overthink your assignment on special teams, there's less hesitation. And be- cause experience isn't as crucial as it is in other areas, it's easier to patch up de- ficiencies. Said Lorig, "The fastest way you can improve as a football team is in your special teams unit. That's the fastest, easiest thing to improve, espe- cially at a place like [Penn State]." The special teams units caught a lot of flak last season, especially after the Cit- rus Bowl, in which a series of break- downs cost the Nittany Lions dearly in their narrow loss to Kentucky. But if you look at their full-season averages, they weren't actually all that bad in several key categories. The Lions were second in the Big Ten in both kickoff returns (24.7 yards per attempt) and punting average (43.1 yards), sixth in punt returns (8.2 yards) and fourth in kickoff coverage (40.7 yards). The numbers don't tell the whole story, though. The Lions got caught flat- footed on a couple of onside kicks, and they gave up a punt-return touchdown against Kentucky as well as a kick-return touch- down in their opener against Appalachian State. The latter helped App State take Penn State to overtime in Beaver Stadium last September, and the former was a backbreaker in the Citrus Bowl. Neither Franklin nor Lorig needs to tell anyone how important spe- cial teams can be to any team's success. Seven of Penn State's nine defeats dur- ing the past three seasons have been by four points or fewer. Losing games by such agonizingly slim margins can't help but drive home the importance of every little detail. In Lorig, the Lions believe they have found the detail-oriented coach they need in order to ensure that the kicking game is an asset, not a liabil- ity. ■ LOOKING UP Hamler (left) prepares to field a punt during a practice session in Holuba Hall, while teammates Noah Cain and Micah Par- sons look on. Photo by Ryan Snyder

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