Penn State’s Jordan Stout wants to do it all in 2021:
Punt and kick field goals and kick off.
And win national awards as the nation’s top college kicker and punter. And be a team leader and be a Barstool Athlete. And make it as Pat McAfee’s No. 1 kicker. And pick up a second degree from Penn State, in labor and employment relations.
And…
Well, the list is pretty extensive. And it can be exhausting.
“I’ll be doing a little bit of each, hopefully,” Stout said on Saturday.
“Jake Pinegar and I are competing for field goals, and Barney Amor are I are competing in punts, so we’ll see what happens,” he said, standing on the Beaver Stadium turf at Penn State’s media day. “I’ll more than likely do kickoffs, but I am also competing for kickoffs.”
Stout’s biggest goals are simple and, TBH, even a bit supercilious.
“I would like to win ether the Ray Guy or Lou Groza award this year and be the best leader I can be,” said Stout, who didn’t make the watch list for either.
There is one thing Stout will not be doing. No matter what happens, Stout won’t be the holder if and where and when Pinegar kicks. How magnanimous of him.
“I was the holder (for Pinegar) last year, but because now I’m trying to play a bigger role in kicking duties, Barney Amor is coming in to hold,” said Stout, who transferred from Virginia Tech and is embarking on his third season at PSU. “Just so we’re not switching out holders when I come in and someone can focus on it fulltime.”
Can Stout be the guy — including winning the Ray Guy Award as college football’s punter, or maybe the Groza as the top place-kicker? He’d “settle” for one. There’s only so much one specialist can do, even if he has a GOAT-like moniker of Jordan.
As special teams coach Joe Lorig said on Saturday, “It’s like a pitch count (for a baseball pitcher) — a guy has only so many pitches in him.”
But…cue Jim Carrey…even Lorig is saying there’s a chance.
“At the same time, we have to make sure the best guy is playing, no matter who he is,” Lorig said. “It’s something I’m very aware of that I have to manage daily.”
A DIRTY DOZEN
So, what are we talking about, really?
Over Penn State’s past two seasons (22 games in all), the Nittany Lions averaged 4.4 punts, 6 kickoffs and 1.5 field goal attempts per game. Tallied up, that’s 12 plays a game. One guy doing all o fthem these days would be a feet. And feat.
It’s unlikely that Stout will handle all dozen every game in 2021.
Pinegar, now in his final season at Penn State, handled the bulk of the place-kicking chores the past three seasons, attempting 49 field goal (making 36, 73.5%) and 141 extra points (making 136, 96.5%).
Stout, by comparison, while at Penn State has tried just 9 field goals (making 4, 44%) and has made 4 of 4 extra point attempts, all of them back in 2018. With great fanfare, 3 of his 4 three-pointers have come from 50 yards or more — 50 vs. Ohio State in 2020, 57 vs. Pitt in 2019 and 53 vs. Idaho in 2019.
Stout is the long guy, Pinegar is the (relatively) short guy. Lorig and head coach James Franklin will decide how they split the duties for 2021 after summer camp, where every field goal by Pinegar and Stout will be charted. Last year, the line of demarcation was 42 yards.
“I could always remember whose kick it was last year,” said Lorig, “because it rhymed: 42 and in, it’s in Pin; 42 and out was Stout.”
JAKE FROM PENN STATE
For his part, Pinegar is the polar opposite of Stout — at least when it comes to setting goals for the 2021 season. (In reality, both are quiet, determined, laser-focused in their approach and how they actually look at you.)
“I really haven’t set any personal goals,” Pinegar said. “I think it’s just a matter of me coming out here, taking it day by day. That’s the biggest thing I try to focus on. Once the games come and the season is over, all of the results are going to take care of themselves. I’m taking care of my business every day, and if I do that, at the end of the season it should be the result that I want.”
The idea that every single kick of Penn State’s camp is being charted and will be used as a guiding force as to who will kick where and when does not faze Pinegar. At all.
“I don’t think about it at all, to be honest,” Pinegar said. “It’s something for the coaches to handle. Wherever they mark the ball in practice, that’s where I’ll kick it. I’m not focused on a line where I’m going to hit it from — I want to make all of them.
“Rather than focusing on what happens if I miss, I try to think about what I need to do to make it. I try to control my mindset and make nine times out 10 or 10 out of 10, if I’m going to get the result I want.”
Besides, says Pinegar, it is what you do in the game — when the pressure is on — that counts. And Pinegar has been there, done that.
At Penn State’s media day on Saturday, Pinegar pointed to a row of would-be starting kickers sitting on a bench on the Beaver Stadium sideline and nonchalantly but candidly pointed out the difference between him and everyone else.
“It’s 90% mental. Most of these kids out here could go out here and line up the ball on sticks and kick field goals all day,” he says. “But, when it matters and the place is filled, and you have to make kicks, it’s a little different – you know what I mean? Anyone can kick, but a lot of it’s mental. It takes a lot to get used to it.”
PUNTING THE QUESTION
In 2020, Stout handled the punting for the Nittany Lions for the first time. He averaged 41,5 yards per punt, but he was inconsistent. Only three of his 33 punts went for 50 yards or more, and only four were fair caught.
With 20/20 hindsight, Lorig wasn’t a big fan of Stout The Punter — though he does say “Jordan is first in line” to be the starting punter again.
“Jordan didn’t really punt the way I know he can; he didn’t punt the way he did in practice,” Lorig admitted. “We brought in a couple of guys who are good, healthy competition for him. So, it will also depend on if he won other jobs more than, ‘How many things can a guy do?’
“I’m not saying Jordan would, but if a guy won punt, field goal and kickoff — could you go with another guy (in any of them) if another guy is close?”
That’s the question.
That other punter could be the aforementioned Amor, who transferred from Colgate after the Patriot League canceled its 2020 fall season. For Colgate in 2019, Amor averaged 42.1 yards on 63 punts, with 11 over 50 yards and 17 inside the 20 (Stout had 8 inside the 20 last season). A native of The Netherlands, Armor played football at Central Bucks East High School in Pennsylvania, where he was all-league as both a kicker (10-16 FG, 39-39 PAT) and punter (39.3).
So, Stout is in for some competition.
Bottom-line, though, can Stout do all he hopes to? Lorig knows this: Stout is looking…well, stout.
“Jordan is very motivated,” said Joe, who knows special teams. “He’s bigger, stronger, faster than he’s ever been.”
