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T H E 2 0 1 9 S E A S O N Stout's touchbacks give kickoff team an edge T hirteen of Penn State's 17 drives re- sulted in points in a season-opening 79-7 win over Idaho, which meant that new kickoff specialist Jordan Stout was a busy man. Stout, a transfer from Virginia Tech, was easily one of the most impressive players on the field in the Nittany Lions' lopsided victory over the Vandals. While solid performances by some other players came with a necessary caveat – Idaho is a Football Championship Subdivision team that has struggled badly in recent years when matched up against Power Five op- ponents – there's no denying the power of Stout's right leg, even if James Franklin was concerned it might grow tired from all the reps. "He had a really good game for us," Franklin said. Stout kicked off 13 times on opening day, with 12 touchbacks and one fair catch. Idaho's return men never seemed super eager to take the ball out with Stout crushing it into the end zone or beyond nearly every time he kicked. He also proved capable of booming the ball through the uprights from distance. With the game still close in the first quar- ter, Stout came on and drilled a 53-yard field goal with some room to spare. It was the team's first field goal of 50 or more yards since Sam Ficken hit from that dis- tance against Temple in 2014, and it was no fluke. Two weeks later against Pitt, Stout hit a school-record 57-yarder to close out the first half. "He's got a really big leg, which elimi- nates a lot of stuff on kickoff return," fel- low kicker Jake Pinegar said following the Idaho game. "Any time you can put it out of the back of the end zone, that's going to be an advantage, right?" It's a luxury the Nittany Lions haven't benefited from in a while. Rafael Checa handled the majority of Penn State's kickoff duties last season, and he al- lowed returns on about 44 percent of his attempts. Checa was also prone to shanking kickoffs out of bounds on oc- casion, setting the opposition up with excellent field position at its own 35- yard line. Stout has shown no such inclinations, instead displaying a level of consistency on kickoffs that had been missing for the Nittany Lions in recent years. His per- formance early in Penn State's season – 24 of his 25 kickoffs resulted in touch- backs in the team's first three games – were right in line with what he did last year, when he allowed only four returns on kickoffs all season. "We've been seeing it all through camp," Penn State cornerback John Reid said following the victory over Idaho. "I think it was yesterday we had the ball on the 20 [for kickoffs]. I think Coach Franklin backed it up on purpose so we could get to look at the return. I think he almost kicked the ball to the back of the end zone, so we weren't really surprised. One time he got the wind to his back, too, and I thought, that's really unnecessary, he's going to kick that regardless. So we kind of expected that." With Stout, a usage hierarchy has seemed to emerge for Penn State. Stout will handle the kickoffs and the longer field goal tries, while Pinegar will get the shorter opportunities. Checa didn't see the field in the Lions' first three games. Stout's solid day against Idaho gave Penn State's defense – a unit considered by most to be the strength of this team – a field position advantage it didn't really need against an opponent that didn't pose an upset threat. Idaho only ad- vanced the ball over midfield four times, with one of those instances coming when Penn State turned it over. "They ain't gonna bring [the ball] out," cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields said. "I think it's kind of fun to know that if they do bring it out you can punish them. But nine times out of 10, they won't come out." ■ | NEW KICKER Stout kicked off 25 times in the Nittany Lions' first three games, and none of those at- tempts were returned. Twenty-four of them were touchbacks. Photo by Steve Manuel

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