Penn State kicker Jordan Stout hopes to continue long-distance deliveries

Everyone at Penn State knew Jordan Stout had a strong leg.

But splitting the uprights in front of 108,000 people at Beaver Stadium is a mental exercise, too. Even more than a physical challenge, perhaps.

So, occasionally last season, when practice was winding down for the day, special teams coach Joe Lorig gathered the team around Stout, his holder and long snapper and asked him to kick a 65-yard field goal.

Stout welcomed the challenge.

“After doing that a few times and making most of them,” Stout said, “(Lorig) realized I would be able to do it in a game.”

And so he did last season, one second before halftime against Pitt.

“I went up to coach and said, ‘Let me kick this. Let me kick this.’ And he let me.”

The 57-yard field goal tied the score at 10 and helped lead Penn State to a 17-10 victory. The distance tied a 47-year-old Beaver Stadium record. After hitting from 53 yards previously against Idaho, Stout became the first Penn State kicker in 11 years to hit two field goals from 50-plus yards in the same season.

“After that happened,” Stout said, “that really boosted their confidence. I’m so thankful they gave me that opportunity because it’s not like that everywhere.”

There probably isn’t anyone at Penn State who knows Stout better than Jake Pinegar, who handles the field goals from inside the 50-yard line and marvels at his friend’s ability to hit the long ones. That division of labor is expected to continue this season.

“You’re not supposed to make those every time, and he’s done a good job with those,” Pinegar said.

“When he steps up there, he’s excited for it. Before games, he’s laid back. He’s relaxed. When it comes time to do those kicks, he gets locked in, pumped up for it and excited for it.”

But after the Pitt game, Stout had only one other attempt the rest of the year (a 52-yard miss in a 59-0 victory at Maryland).

This season, Stout is expected to handle the punting chores, too, replacing Blake Gillikin. Stout will continue to kick off and attempt the long field goals. He welcomes the extra work.

“I like both equally. My goal is to make it to the NFL,” the senior said, noting that doing all three is the best way to catch that league’s eye.

“Since sophomore year of high school (Honaker in Virginia), I’ve been practicing punting and kicking and kickoff so I feel like I’ve been preparing for this.”

He had been a soccer player for most of his young life — he ended up as a three-time Honaker MVP in that sport — and didn’t give football much thought. Until, one day in ninth grade, the school’s quarterback asked him to kick a 40-yard field goal in practice.

“I said, ‘Yeah, sure.’

“I made it and he said, ‘You’re going to play football next year.’ ”

Before he arrived at Penn State in 2019, Stout was an accomplished kickoff specialist at Virginia Tech. A total of 60 of his 71 ended up as touchbacks, an 84.5 percentage that was fourth in the nation in 2018.

But he didn’t see tremendous opportunity at Virginia Tech, leading to his decision to transfer even though his hometown of Cedar Bluff, Va., was only 113 miles from Blacksburg.

“It was a stressful process,” he said. “I didn’t know, leaving Virginia Tech, if I was going to get five scholarship offers or if I was going to get zero and just have to walk on somewhere else.”

But he said Penn State offered him a scholarship two hours after his name appeared in the NCAA transfer portal, and he chose the Nittany Lions over Arkansas.

“It ended up being one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” he said.

Stout doesn’t like talking about his reasons for transferring, other than to say, “I feel like I had proved myself, and I wasn’t getting the opportunity I feel like I deserved. That part was bigger than the part of having a scholarship. I felt like I couldn’t pursue my dream of the NFL there.”

Many in his hometown of barely more than 1,000 people are Virginia Tech fans, but he said he received only friendly harassment when he decided to leave.

He said, however, he might feel a little more juice when he steps into Lane Stadium in Blacksburg on Sept. 12 for a rare meeting between the Nittany Lions and Hokies.

“I’m really, really excited to go to their house, my old place, and play with my new team,” Stout said.