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Penn State Football Recruiting: Nittany Lions land punter Alex Bacchetta

By Alec Whitaker

STATE COLLEGE, PA - DECEMBER 19: Lamont Wade #38 of the Penn State Nittany Lions celebrates with teammates after returning a kick 100 yards for a touchdown against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the first half at Beaver Stadium on December 19, 2020 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
STATE COLLEGE, PA - DECEMBER 19: Lamont Wade #38 of the Penn State Nittany Lions celebrates with teammates after returning a kick 100 yards for a touchdown against the Illinois Fighting Illini during the first half at Beaver Stadium on December 19, 2020 in State College, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images) /
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Penn State Football pulled off a recruiting win Tuesday, securing a commitment from punter Alex Bacchetta, boosting the Nittany Lions’ special teams.

Penn State Football shored up their special teams on Tuesday night when the Nittany Lions secured a commitment from punter Alex Bacchetta.

Bacchetta is the first punter to receive a scholarship from Penn State Football since Blake Gillikin. Ironically, they attended the same high school, Westminster School in Atlanta.

Kohl’s Kicking ranks Bacchetta as the top punter in the country. There currently is not a ranking for him from the major recruiting services.

https://twitter.com/AlexBacchetta/status/1397326680096641028?s=20

Special teams coordinator Joe Lorig has to be happy about the future of his unit as Penn State landed the nation’s top kicker in 2021 in Sander Sahaydak. Penn State Football is slated to lose both of their current specialists, Jordan Stout and Jake Pinegar, by the end of the 2022 season.

James Franklin using a scholarship on a specialist in back to back classes shows you how much he values that phase of the game. Penn State has won and lost games due to special teams before. The 2016 Ohio State game was won because of it, and the Citrus Bowl against Kentucky was lost due to the third phase of the game.

Bacchetta’s other offers were Arkansas and Virginia, but many other schools were interested.

How this commitment effects the rest of the 2022 class remains to be seen. Bacchetta is the eleventh commit in the class, which ranks sixth nationally, meaning there are at most 14 spots left.

The staff still has numerous holes to fill in the class, especially on defense.

Punting was an issue the first couple of years during Franklin’s tenure at Penn State. Gillikin fixed most of that, and he was quietly a key member of the Nittany Lion’s great run from 2016 to 2019.

The hope is that Bacchetta can have the same impact that Gillikin had.

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