In what shouldn’t come as a surprise, Jordan Stout will not be Penn State’s punter in 2022.
This past season, Stout, who also handled Penn State’s kickoff and place kicking duties, established himself as one of the best punters in college football, winning Big Ten Punter of the Year and being a finalist for the Ray Guy Award, given annually to the nation’s best punter. He ended the season with a 93.3 overall grade from Pro Football Focus, the best mark in the country.
Now, he’s moving on and declaring for the 2022 NFL Draft.
“I really can’t find the right words to express how incredible my time in State College has been and how honored I am to have played at such an incredible place,” Stout wrote in his Twitter statement. “I always dreamed of playing sports on the big stage. Little did I know I would be playing on one of the biggest stages in all of sports.”
Stout, a native of Cedar Bluff, Virginia, which is roughly two hours from Blacksburg, started his college football career at Virginia Tech. After two years with the Hokies, he transferred to Penn State before the 2019 season. He spent his first season at Penn State responsible mainly for kickoffs, and was also Penn State’s long-range field goal specialist. After current New Orleans Saints punter Blake Gillikin graduated, Stout became Penn State’s punter in 2020 and kept that job until the end of his college football career.
Thank you 💙 pic.twitter.com/dVBB65roZF
— Jordan Stout (@JORDANSTOUT92) January 4, 2022
In his statement, Stout thanked his teammates from both Virginia Tech and Penn State, as well Penn State head coaches James Franklin, now-former special teams coach Joe Lorig and special teams analyst Eric Raisbeck. He also thanked Penn States fans. At the end of his statement by thanking his friends, girlfriend and family.
“You are all my ‘why,'” he wrote “and you are the reason I go to work every day. You all give me the motivation to go in and put 1000% of my effort into being the best player and person I can be. For that I thank you.”
