Penn State coach James Franklin isn’t worried about the Nittany Lions’ field goal specialist Jake Pinegar after a shaky day that saw the senior miss one extra point and a 42-yard field goal attempt during the Nittany Lions’ 46-10 victory over Ohio on Saturday.
“He missed a 42-yard field goal,” Franklin said opining that college football kicker in general have a mixed success rate above 40 yards. “He hasn’t had a lot of opportunities. Part of it is because we’ve gone for it a bunch on fourth down and have been successful. I have a ton of confidence in Jake and what he’s going to do.”
Franklin isn’t wrong that Pinegar hasn’t had many chances to prove his worth kicking field goals this season. In total the Nittany Lions have attempted two field goals all year – both coming on Saturday – with Pinegar making a 25-yard attempt earlier in the game. Against Purdue the Nittany Lions never lined up for a field goal attempt while Pinegar went 5-for-5 on extra points in Penn State’s comeback victory.
And as Franklin would go on to note, not everything about Pinegar’s misses was all on the kicker himself.
“We have to shore up that protection on the field goal,” Franklin added, as Ohio was able to get pressure on Pinegar. “We’re getting way too much push inside our guard position. The problem is once you put that on tape, it’s there and now people are going to attack it. We have to get that fixed, whether that’s continuing techniques and fundamentals or whether that’s making some changes at those positions as well. Everyone wants to talk about the other positions. That guard position on field goal PAT is important too.”
All of that being said Pinegar’s misses are a bit of an inauspicious start for the veteran kicker who is looking to buck old trends. Prior to the season Pinegar had made just nine kicks from beyond 40 yards over the span of 18 attempts. Alternatively, Pinegar had become fairly reliable from inside 40 yards going 27-for-32 on all kicks inside of 40 yards.
Subsequently, Pinegar had become Penn State’s short yardage specialist while multi-faceted kicker and punter Jordan Stout took care of longer range duties before taking over all field goal duties in 2021. With no tested options behind Pinegar this time around, Franklin and company will hope things bounce back in Week 3 in what ought to prove to be a much closer game.
