Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1525333
S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 4 41 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M E D I T O R I A L MATT HERB MATT.HERB@ON3.COM F ootball has become a game of ana- lytics, and nowhere is it more data- driven than on special teams. The desire to quantify every aspect of the kicking game is so all-con- suming that it extends to Penn State's football media day. As head coach James Franklin explained at the team's preseason media gathering on Aug. 3, every year the specialists attempt to predict how many reporters will talk to them. Those who end up on the wrong side of the over/under must do 10 push-ups. Franklin sounded a bit sheepish as he spoke, as if disclosing its existence might ruin the experiment. "I probably shouldn't say this," he admitted. "It'll skew the numbers." As for the numbers that actually matter, Penn State is quietly gathering those behind the scenes. The Nittany Lions have an ongoing competition at placekicker, with three contenders vy- ing for the opportunity to succeed Alex Felkins, the Columbia transfer who hit 19 of 24 attempts last year and won second-team All-Big Ten notice in his lone season at Penn State. Redshirt junior Sander Sahaydak won the job in preseason camp a year ago but missed field goal attempts of 38 and 34 yards in the season opener against West Virginia. Those misses opened the door for Felkins, and after taking over in the third quarter against the Mountaineers, he never relin- quished the job. Challenging Sahaydak this year are junior Tulsa transfer Chase Meyer and redshirt freshman walk-on Ryan Barker. Hailing from a high school that had never produced a Division I football player — Kennett High in Kennett Square, Pa. — Barker is the least- known of the candidates. He was a do-it-all specialist for the Blue De- mons, handling placements, kickoffs and punts during his four seasons as a varsity letterwinner. Among his 6 field goals as a senior was a school-record 45-yarder. Meyer hit 17 of 20 field goals at Tulsa in 2023, including a last-second 37-yarder that gave the Golden Hur- ricane a 29-27 victory over East Caro- lina. He's already made the watch list for the Lou Groza Award, which goes to the nation's top kicker. While pre- season honors won't factor into the coaches' calculations, the fact that Meyer has a statistically significant body of game-day work to evaluate does matter, if only as a potential tie- breaker. "We're going to look at the data," special teams coordinator Justin Lustig said. "If it's close, a guy who's a vet- eran, a guy who we feel can handle the stress of the situation, might get the nod." One of the reasons for the fixation on analytics in the kicking game is that the numbers are easy to parse. Place- kicking is a binary proposition. The ball either goes through the uprights or it doesn't. There's no need to check the premium stats on Pro Football Focus to know whether you've got a guy you can trust. "When you're evaluating other positions on offense and defense — quarterback is an obvious one, or the O-line — there's so much gray, there's so much subjectivity in making those decisions about who's going to be the starter," Lustig said. "At placekicker, it's not as difficult. We're charting ev- ery kick, and those guys know that." Last season was a rarity at Penn State in that none of its 13 games were de- cided by less than a touchdown. The Nittany Lions' average margin of vic- tory in their 10 wins was 32.6 points; the average margin of defeat in their three losses was 10 points. Their clos- est games were a nine-point win over Indiana and losses by eight and nine points to Ohio State and Michigan, re- spectively. With four new West Coast teams coming aboard and the oft-criticized East-West divisional format now scrapped, the Big Ten appears to have enhanced its competitive balance go- ing forward. If that leads to more one- score games — like Penn State's 2021 and '22 season openers against Wis- consin and Purdue, respectively — the need for reliable placekicking will only be magnified in the years ahead. At the start of preseason camp, Lustig sounded confident that the winner of the Nittany Lions' three- way competition will be able to deliver what the team needs from the position this year. Said the first-year Penn State coordinator, "We've got a good prob- lem in that room." As to the question of which kicker will emerge with the starting job, Lustig was quite willing to let the battle play out as long as necessary. The only likelihood at this point is that the numbers won't lie. ■ In his first season as Penn State's special teams coordina- tor, Justin Lustig is overseeing a three-way competition for the starting placekicker job. With Sander Sahaydak, Chase Meyer and Ryan Barker all in contention, Lustig said the Lions have "a good problem in that room." PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER Penn State's Placekicking Battle Is A Numbers Game VARSITY VIEWS