Penn State football notebook: Field position, Jordan Stout and more

Penn State Nittany Lions football has leaned heavily on its special teams units this season, several of which rank among the most efficient in the country.

Special teams coordinator Joe Lorig met with the media Thursday afternoon to break down his unit's early successes, talk about the return game and more.

If there's one area to nitpick with the Penn State special teams unit so far this season, it has been in the return game, where the Nittany Lions rank in the bottom third nationally on kickoffs and 76th on punts.

Lorig said he would like to see his Nittany Lions be slightly more explosive in that area when they do get the chance to return kicks, but adds that he isn't overly concerned about the results because Penn State is taking care of the football in that aspect of the game.

Lorig said Penn State is fine with accepting touchbacks and starting at the 25-yard line after kickoffs if it means it doesn't turn the ball over and doesn't handcuff its offense by making a poor decision and getting pinned deep.

Still, he acknowledged that punt and kick return is an area where the Nittany Lions can improve.

"Certainly, I don't think we've been over-the-top great with either of those units," he said. "There's always room for improvement. and we took the bye week to really study specifically how we can improve in those areas. Is there something that's showing up?"

It was a surprise to many when Jordan Stout — Penn State's special teams everyman — kicked short field goals and extra points for the Nittany Lions when they took on Wisconsin at the beginning of the year.

That had normally been the domain of Jake Pinegar, who lost that job to Stout in camp.

Lorig noted that an injury to Pinegar's back in the late summer and fall may have influenced that competition.

Now he's healthy and handling his situation well.

"I think he'll grow from it and I actually think he's going to be a lot better for it," Lorig said. "He's got a couple years of eligibility left and I think we're going to see some great things out of him. I'm very excited about his future."

Stout missed three of his first eight field goal attempts this season, but has been perfect in his last two games.

Asked if there was something tangible that led to the better results for the field goal unit, Lorig instead pointed toward a shift in mindset from the coaching staff.

As tempting as it is for the Nittany Lions to try to make use of Stout's big leg whenever possible, they've opted to punt in some of those longer field goal situations recently, which helps the Nittany Lions stay efficient on special teams and allows them to lean on their excellent defense a bit more.

"Maybe instead of kicking that 48,49, 52-yard field goal, now we're maybe leaning more towards punting the ball and playing good defense," Lorig said.

"It's tempting because you get greedy and you want to take those three points, but at the same time, if the highest level of football, the NFL, is going to make it 50 percent of the time, the reality is we're probably going to make it 50 percent of the time, so then we just gotta make that decision."

*******

• Talk about this article inside The Lions Den

• Watch our videos and subscribe to our YouTube channel

• Sign up for our daily newsletter and breaking news alerts

• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue-White Illustrated

• Follow us on Twitter: @BWIonRivals, @NateBauerBWI, @RivalsSnyder, @DavidEckert98, @GregPickel, @ThomasFrankCarr

• Follow us on Instagram

• Like us on Facebook