Time to add punter Blake Gillikin and kicker Jordan Stout to the Penn State impact players list

Penn State is halfway through the regular season and the Nittany Lions are perfect at 6-0. Honestly, with the talent assembled by head coach James Franklin six wins in as many games is not a huge surprise.

The schedule will get tougher and it starts with one-loss Michigan at home Saturday for a night game. Ohio State, Michigan State are still looming as is a road game at Minnesota. Don’t sleep on the Gophers. They are more of a real threat than Michigan State, but since Penn State almost always loses to MSU under Franklin you still have to worry about Sparty.

There’s a huge opportunity that lies ahead for a club laced with talent and depth. The defense continues to be the backbone of this team. The offense is spotty at times and needs a second wideout to be an option. The quarterback is still very much a work in progress.

A huge difference maker that is on my mind this week as the Lions prepare for the Wolverines. Penn State owns a stellar kicking game.

Michigan wins games with defense. The lower scoring the better. Penn State can play a little defense, too. In a tight spot on the road last week at Iowa, where defense was dictating the outcome, how big was the kicking game?

Did you know Iowa’s average starting field position against Penn State was the Hawkeyes’ 18-yard-line. For an offensively challenged and limited offense like Iowa starting in the shadow of your own goal line all game is suffocating.

Punter Blake Gillikin and kicker Jordan Stout are each having All Big-Ten and are on the cusp of All-America type seasons. Each has been consistent and dynamic at the same time while flipping the script from Penn State’s special teams being a huge liability a year ago to a bona-fide strength in 2019.

Gillikin is averaging 41 yards a punt. There’s nothing special about that number, right? To me his average is almost irrelevant. When’s asked to go all out he can bomb it. One out of every five punts this season have traveled 50-plus yards.

He has only two touchbacks in 28 kicks and more than half (15) of his 28 punts have been downed inside the 20.

Stout, who the Nittany Lions picked up via the transfer portal because Virginia Tech was just stupid enough not to offer him a scholarship, is a folk hero in Happy Valley.

He was ranked No. 4 in FBS a year ago in touchbacks for the Hokies as a walk-on kicker. And he continues to excel at Penn State with 82 percent (36 of 44) of his kickoffs not able to be returned. And sure he’s kicked one out of bounds, but once in six games isn’t 2018 directional kicking … remember that Penn State fans?

In addition to being a long bomber on kickoffs, Stout also is the Nittany Lions “long” field goal kicker. He’s only 2-for-3 in field goals, but that school record 57-yard bomb just before the half against Pitt was a difference maker.

Football fans notice when special teams are bad and causing problems. But they tend to just accept very good special teams instead of celebrating it. These two kickers will have an impact for the Nittany Lions during a much more difficult second half of the season.