Penn State football will soon be gearing up for its preseason camp. A month later, the Nittany Lions will put their work to action when they begin the 2024 season.<\/p>\n
This week, Blue-White Illustrated is examining the names and faces expected to significantly impact every facet of the game. Today, we\u2019re turning to the specialist who can be a crutch for the Nittany Lions this season<\/p>\n
One of the biggest boosts to Penn State\u2019s 2024 season occurred before the calendar flipped into the new year. Riley Thompson<\/a><\/strong>, the transfer punter from FAU, had been granted a waiver to participate for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. <\/p>\n \u201cI have absolutely loved my first season playing in front of you guys at Beaver Stadium,\u201d Thompson wrote after the announcement. \u201cI am so thrilled to announce that I have been approved by the NCAA for a two-year extension to my eligibility clock through the 2025 season. And I can\u2019t wait to be back out there with my teammates and in front of you. Job\u2019s not finished.\u201d<\/p>\n Thompson\u2019s return meant the exit of scholarship punter Alex Bacchetta to the transfer portal, eventually landing at Rice. But it also meant the return of an honorable mention All-Big Ten selection with an opportunity to emerge as one of the conference\u2019s best punters during the 2024 season. <\/p>\n Last year, he finished with 51 punts at an average of 45.8 yards per attempt. It was the second-highest average in program history and the best since 2000. His leg proved to be weaponry on behalf of Manny Diaz <\/a><\/strong>and the Nittany Lion defense beyond the sheer numbers, though. None of his punt attempts went for touchbacks. He had 17 punts downed inside the 20, and 15 of his kicks were good for 50 or more yards.<\/p>\n So, upon accepting the Penn State special teams coordinator position this offseason, Justin Lustig<\/a><\/strong> didn\u2019t hold back when evaluating the impact of Thompson\u2019s carryover into the new campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s huge. As specialists, you can be talented, and you can do it in practices. But doing it in games is a completely different animal,\u201d said Lustig. \u201cThe mental game of that position is so critically important. Being able to handle the crowds. And being able to handle the situations in the games. <\/p>\n \u201cHaving a guy that\u2019s got some experience under his belt and being able to come back is huge for us. I see guys take big, big steps going into their junior and senior years, or their fourth and fifth years, at specialist positions. So expectations are high for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Talk about it with our premium subscribers in the Lions Den, here!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n The post Penn State football\u2019s 2024 summer standouts: Special teams crutch<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Penn State football will soon be gearing up for its preseason camp. A month later,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60489,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60458\/revisions\/60489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}