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P L A Y E R B I O S WHAT HE DID Westminster muddled through its regular season, :nishing 6-4. But once the playo;s began, the Wildcats were a di;erent team. In fact, they didn't lose an- other game, stringing together :ve victories – the last of which was a 38-31 win over Blessed Trinity – to claim the GHSA Class AAA state championship. During the regular season, Gillikin averaged 43.2 yards per punt, and 14 of his attempts were downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line. He's expected to focus on punting at Penn State, but he also kicked for Westminster, sending 46 of 54 kicko;s through the end zone and connecting on all of his extra-point at- tempts. WHAT HE WON Gillikin is a three-star prospect according to Rivals.com. He also won Class AAA All-State recognition as a place-kicker. WHERE HE VISITED In addition to Penn State, Gillikin made three trips to Northwestern and also checked out Georgia. But he had been impressed with James Franklin when the Nittany Lion coaching sta; traveled to Georgia State for a satellite camp, and he went on to give the Lions a commit- ment on June 21. QUOTABLE Gillikin: "The coaching sta; just really made me feel at home up there. Don't get me wrong, all three of the coaching sta;s that I considered were great, too. But Coach Franklin, Coach [Charles] Hu; and Coach [Samuel] Williams really recruited me hard. They've been in contact with me since March, so I could really tell that they were looking for me to commit. I was just glad I could give that to them on Fa- ther's Day." STAFF SAYS Franklin: "You look at Blake Gillikin and what he did in his state championship game. That was as impres- sive of a performance as we've ever been around." PHIL'S TAKE Penn State recruited Gillikin exclusively as a punter. That's understandable given the Lions' acute needs at the position. But in addition to his strong punting at Westminster, he was also an excellent kicker, with :eld goals of 53 and 55 yards in the state playo;s. I expect Gillikin to compete for the starting punter job as soon as he steps onto campus; he has the potential to become a four-year starter at that spot. It will be interesting to see whether he joins the competition at place-kicker, too. BLAKE GILLIKIN RIVALS ★★★ POS P/K HT 6-2 WT 182 HOME Atlanta, Ga. SCHOOL Westminster WHAT HE DID A

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