Penn State Football: Week 2 Studs and Duds against Pittsburgh
By Corey Hunter
Punter – Blake Gillikin
In games where playing conditions are not always optimal, field position can be crucial. Case in point – Saturday night. Time and again Penn State punter Blake Gillikin pinned the Panthers deep when it appeared they would have excellent starting field position. Gillikin finished the contest with a 42.6 yards per punt average on 5 kicks, but cold numbers don’t tell the whole story.
On four separate occasions Saturday night Gillikin pinned the Panthers inside their own 20 yard line and three times inside their own 10. Two of his kicks directly resulted in points for Penn State. One punt hemmed the Panthers and resulted in a safety and another deep punt ultimately allowed returner DeAndre Thompkins to return a Pitt punt for a touchdown.
Gillikin can not only pin teams deep, but he can also boom the long punts to change field position. Saturday night, besides dropping some wonderful punts deep in Pitt territory, he also booted two kicks of over 50 yards.
The Smyrna, Georgia junior is one of six Big Ten players placed on the 2018 Ray Guy Award Preseason Watch List, and listening to his head coach after the game, he deserves to be in strong contention for the award for how well he did to flip the field position for the Penn State defense.
“We won the starting field position, our 44 compared to their 25. I thought Blake was a big difference in the game this week compared to last week. Tough weather conditions, and he was able to punt the ball and swing field position when we needed him to,” Franklin said.