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A Leg To Stand On

The following story appears in our 2018 Penn State Football Season Preview magazine, printed and mailed to our Blue White Illustrated print subscribers this week and set to hit newsstands throughout Pennsylvania next week.

Order your copy, HERE!

Also available on newsstands throughout Pennsylvania NOW!

By Matt Herb

Early in Penn State’s game against Nebraska last November, the offense stalled out at its own 18-yard line, which meant that the team needed a long punt from Blake Gillikin to avoid giving the Cornhuskers a short field to work with.

Instead, beset by rainy field conditions and falling temperatures, Gillikin lined an 18-yarder out of bounds, and Nebraska quickly scored the go-ahead touchdown.

Nearly eight months have passed since that soggy afternoon in Beaver Stadium, but he still remembers the moment with absolute clarity, even though his immediate impulse was to put it behind him as quickly as possible. “One of the most difficult parts of being a specialist and only getting so many opportunities and messing up tragically on one of those opportunities is that you have to refocus and get back to what you know how to do,” he said.

Tragic might seem like a harsh word to describe a shanked first-quarter punt in a game that the Nittany Lions ended up winning, 56-44. But when one’s goals are wildly ambitious, every glitch tends to assume an outsized place in the memory. And make no mistake: Gillikin’s goals are wildly ambitious. The Smyrna, Ga., native came to Penn State with the intention of becoming not simply the best punter in the country but the best in Nittany Lion history.

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Could Gillikin take on more than just the punting responsibilities this season?
Could Gillikin take on more than just the punting responsibilities this season?

He’s now two years into those efforts, and as he pointed out recently, “I can certainly reach that goal.” Gillikin is averaging 43.0 yards per attempt, which is just a shade under Jeremy Boone’s career record of 43.1 yards, set during his three-year tenure from 2007-09.

Making his average even more impressive is that Penn State’s offense hasn’t exactly been punter-friendly in recent years. Even when it’s not generating points, it’s churning up yards and first downs, meaning that Gillikin has frequently been called on to pin opponents deep rather than simply drive the ball as far and as high as possible. Of the 113 punts he has attempted, 48 have been downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.

“Our offense is really, really good, and that means that my average isn’t always going to be up there with the top guys in the country,” he said. “You can only punt the ball so far if you’re trying to pooch it.”

A starter from his very first game at Penn State, Gillikin filled a big need when he arrived in 2016, and he goes into the second half of his career feeling self-assured yet still driven to improve.

“I’ve been pleased with how I’ve punted so far,” he said. “But I wouldn’t say I’m satisfied because I know I can get better, and there are some punts I wish I could get back. Last season was the first time I ever shanked a punt – a true shank, which I wasn’t really happy about. But I think I’ve been pretty consistent. I think my consistency definitely can improve, which is what I’ve really been trying to work on. I think as you mature and grow and gain more experience, that comes along with all the hard work you put in. I’m looking forward to seeing the product in the fall.”

Gillikin’s punting has been so good that James Franklin has been reluctant to expand his role on the team. He was named a captain this spring, but a move to broaden his responsibilities even further by allowing him to punt and kick has met with some resistance. While Gillikin was an excellent kicker as a senior at the Westminster School, earning first-team All-State honors, Franklin’s position has been clear from the start: He wants his specialists to specialize. That means kickers kick and punters punt.

But Penn State faced an unusual dilemma this spring: Only one of the four players expected to vie for the team’s vacant place-kicking position was on campus. So Gillikin did some kicking in practice, working alongside redshirt freshman walk-on Carson Landis. He said he tried to kick every day, partly to get a feel for how much physical stress his leg could handle. Kicking calls on a different set of muscles than punting, because it requires a swinging motion rather than the straight up-and-down motion that a punter uses. But combining the two disciplines increases the risk of leg fatigue, Gillikin said, because there’s a temptation to put in extra work if you aren’t satisfied with your performance in one or the other.

Gillikin admitted that he did experience some fatigue in the spring, but as practice went on he was able to fine-tune his routine. “It got to the point where I figured out how much kicking and punting I could do and still feel good about both,” he said. “So the spring was about finding balance and trying to figure out what was going to work best for me and the team.”

As far as Franklin is concerned, what would work best would be for either Landis or one of the incoming freshman kickers to seize the job in August. He doesn’t want to overextend one of the Big Ten’s best punters, and Gillikin already has a second job, as he’s been serving as a holder on placements. Kicking wouldn’t necessarily add a third job, since he couldn’t hold and place-kick, at least on field goals. But it would test his endurance in a way that his current responsibilities do not.

And yet, it’s not hard to understand why Gillikin approached special teams coordinator Phil Galiano about trying to kick, nor is it hard to envision a scenario in which he turns out to be the right man for the job. Gillikin had actually started out his football career as a kicker, his head filled with visions of game-winning kicks at Westminster. The main reason he tried punting was because the school had been blessed with a succession of excellent specialists that included future Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker. Punting was his way of getting on the field. When the last of the standout kickers graduated, Gillikin took over the position as a senior and responded by hitting 16 of 26 attempts, including kicks of 56, 53 and 52 yards, the longest makes in school history.

He said he feels capable of doing the same in college. “My first priority is to be the best punter I can be and the best punter in the country,” he said, “but I’ll also be working on all that other stuff on the side to keep my leg in shape and leave myself that option if it comes to that in the fall.”

Trace McSorley is on the cover of Blue White Illustrated's 2018 Penn State Football Preview edition. Order here!
Trace McSorley is on the cover of Blue White Illustrated's 2018 Penn State Football Preview edition. Order here!

Blue White Illustrated is thrilled to present its 2018 Penn State Football Preview magazine, featuring 112 pages of the most in-depth features, news and coverage of the Nittany Lions as they prepare for the upcoming season! It's our biggest preseason issue ever, and it's mailing next week to our print subscribers, pre-orders, and will be on newsstands throughout Pennsylvania beginning the week of July 14.

Don't miss your chance to grab a copy - ORDER HERE!

What else is in our preseason preview magazine this year?

Phil's Corner - BWI publisher Phil Grosz kicks off yet another year in his decades-long coverage of the Penn State football program with a detailed look at the biggest questions this program will need to answer if it wants to achieve even better results than the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

Coaches Interviews - BWI editor Nate Bauer sat down with Nittany Lion head coach James Franklin as he gets set to embark on his fifth season at the helm, as well as his three coordinators on offense, defense and special teams. Don't miss the full Q&As running with Franklin, Ricky Rahne, Brent Pry and new special teams coordinator Phil Galiano.

Player Features - Like our exclusive one-on-one interviews with Penn State's coaching staff, these are the stories you won't see anywhere else this summer. We sat down with the biggest names and faces that will determine the Nittany Lions' fate as a program this season, including McSorley, wideout DeAndre Thompkins, running back Miles Sanders, guard Michal Menet, end Shareef Miller, linebacker Koa Farmer, safety Nick Scott, and captain punter Blake Gillikin.

Position-By-Position Analysis - BWI publisher Phil Grosz takes on each of Penn State's positions across the field as we break down the entirety of the Nittany Lions' depth chart. From quarterback through special teams, we've got it all covered.

2018 Opponent Previews - BWI editor Matt Herb tackled each of Penn State's 12 opponents in the upcoming season. What will the Nittany Lions have to overcome in order to produce the dream season their hoping for? Kicking off with Appalachian State and working all the way through the regular season finale against Maryland, each of Penn State's upcoming foes are broken down here!

These stories, along with our 2017-18 Penn State Year in Review, plus all of our usual fare including comprehensive recruiting coverage, men's basketball, a monthly historical retrospective, columns from each of our staff of writers, and more, are all included in our 2018 Penn State Football Preview edition.

CLICK HERE to ORDER your copy today!

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