For all of the offensive and defensive talent Penn State has managed to amass over the past decade, it is perhaps no mistake that the Nittany Lions have found a great deal of success around the same time that the program had accumulated elite punting and kicking. Flipping the field may not win you a game, but shanking a punt sure can lose it, and even if field goals are second fiddle to touchdowns, points always at a premium in the year’s biggest games.
Heading into the 2023 season, specialists are still a bit of a question mark for a team that hasn’t had to worry about kicking in a good long while. The departures of Jake Pinegar and Barney Amor have left an important void still looking to be filled as Penn State rolls into single-digit days until the season begins. And while punting and field goals might not make or break the early part of the schedule, they sure could make a difference as the season drags into late October.
“I think every year you’re gonna have a different room and a different situation,” special teams coach Stacy Collins said earlier this month. “I think that’s one of the neat things about coaching college football, is the change. Throughout the change of the seasons and the change of players … that’s why the growth of development is so important. We had a lot of these guys… able to get game experience a year ago and that’s gonna be [important for] this season.”
Neat is certainly a word for it. In Collins’ mind the word might actually be “‘stressful” as a trio of kickers — Ryan Barker, Columbia transfer Alex Felkins and Sander Sahaydak —look to establish a pecking order in the kicking game. Sahaydak is likely the odds-on favorite to win the job, but the redshirt sophomore will have to prove he can take his kicking from the practice fields to the stressful environment of big game situations.
Easier said than done, but not impossible.
“I think you want to make sure, as we go through these practices, you’re putting these guys in those situations over and over,” Collins added. “So then the first time that they get to kick in a pressure situation you’ve done everything you can … to put these guys in that situation before and know that they have that routine, have that plan and have that progression to put their best foot forward.”
In a game dominated by touchdowns Penn State can maybe get away with a less-than-perfect field goal unit, and while the nuclear foot of Jordan Stout may have proven a hot commodity on kickoffs, plenty of good football teams win big games without touchbacks. Nevertheless, as Penn State looks to round out its punter and kicker unit, the only thing that seems for certain is that the long snapper is established with Tyler Duzansky.
So there’s that.
“I think however this thing plays out, I think going out and getting some veterans to come in here and create competition has been really good for us,” Penn State coach James Franklin said earlier this week. “I think Sander’s development because of the competition, I think is dramatic. And I don’t know if that happens without the competition. I would say it’s happening at kicker, punter and really kickoff as well. I would say [Duzansky] is probably the one guy that’s pretty much solidified himself. And there’s a pretty significant gap between the other two and I think the other two are pretty good.”
Beyond Duzansky, the rest is undetermined, a not entirely encouraging sign for a team with such high aspirations and expectations. At punter, the quartet of Riley Thompson, Mitchell Groh, Alex Bacchetta and the towering 6-foot-6 Gabriel Nwosu are all looking to establish they can be relied on, but with fewer and fewer days left to establish confidence, Penn State will hope the road ahead still stretches accurately and 45-50 yards a boot.
