Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1276571
knew I could do it," Stout recalled. "I guess I go into games with confidence be- cause I've done it so many times in prac- tice. So I wasn't nervous going into the game. I honestly felt more nervous in high school hitting an extra point than I was for that. I knew I was capable of doing it, so I was really confident." When the ball left Stout's foot, holder Blake Gillikin thought it was short, so he started calling out to the linemen to cover a possible return attempt. But Stout thought it was in, and he turned out to be right. The ball sailed through the up- rights, tying the score at 10-10 and giving Stout, who was only three games into his Penn State career, a piece of school his- tory. The previous PSU record had been held by Chris Bahr, who hit three 55-yard field goals in 1975. Stout's booming kicks were among the bigger storylines of Penn State's 2019 season. He also hit a 53-yarder in the sea- son opener against Idaho, and while Jake Pinegar handled all but a handful of the team's field goal attempts, Stout was a major asset on kickoffs, knocking 66 of his 83 attempts into the end zone for touchbacks. A native of Cedar Bluff, Va., Stout ar- rived at Penn State last year via the transfer portal after deciding that the Hokies weren't using him to his full po- tential. That won't be a problem at Penn State. There is a scarcely a job that he won't be doing whenever football re- sumes. He's set to reprise his roles as the kickoff and long-distance field goal spe- cialist. In addition, he'll be holding for Pinegar on shorter field goals, and with Gillikin having graduated, he's set to be- come the team's punter, too. "I pride myself on being a combo guy," Stout said. "One of the main reasons I went to Penn State was because me and Blake were really close even before I de- cided to transfer. Once I entered the por- tal, Blake hit me up and said, hey, we may have a spot here for kickoffs, maybe field goals, and punting once I leave. I was like, all right, cool. The coaches got to see me a lot, and I guess they saw that I was ca- pable enough to [punt]. After Blake left, they told me that I was going to be the starter." Special teams coordinator Joe Lorig said that Penn State had originally 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." The last time Stout punted was in Vir- ginia Tech's spring game more than a year ago. The last time he punted in a game that counted was as a senior at Honaker High School, where he averaged 47 yards per attempt in 2016. But he served as the backup last season to Gillikin, who he had gotten to know while attending One On One Kicking Camp in Alabama, and he picked up a few pointers along the way. One of Stout's biggest takeaways from Gillikin, who compiled the school's second-best career punting average (43.03 ypa) be- fore signing a free agent contract with the New Orleans Saints this past spring, was that it's important to adhere to a routine. "He always had a plan going into games," Stout said. "He knew how many drop drills he was going to do, how many dry runs, before he even started punting. I think that was big, because that's what the NFL looks for." Stout has always had a strong leg, and he displayed it both on the football field and the soccer pitch at Honaker. By his own admission, he wasn't a natural at the latter sport. He wasn't one of those players who can see the whole field and make just the right pass at just the right moment. But he could always crush the ball. Now, Penn State will be looking to take maximum advantage of his skill set. Ask- ing him to take over for Gillikin will re- quire some dexterity on the part of the coaching staff, but Lorig said he's confi- dent that Stout can handle all of his re- sponsibilities. "It's just going to be [a matter of] mak- ing 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 mak- ing sure that if he becomes a great punter that we don't have any drop-off on kick- offs, 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, pre- season camp, all those things [will be im- portant]. "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 Nittany 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." For the next two seasons, though, they feel as though they've got their guy. And Stout is aiming to reward that show of faith. "I'm more confident right now in my abilities than I ever have been, probably because we had so much time off and all I did was train," he said. "I'm feeling really good about my role at Penn State this sea- son." ■ >>