Making the transition from high school to a Division I collegiate program like Penn State is never easy, even for the nation’s most elite high schoolers. Most freshmen are afforded the opportunity to sit for a year or two to in order to adjust to the big step up in competition.

Freshman kicker Jake Pinegar, on the other hand, was thrown right into the fire.

Games can be lost with a botched extra point attempt or a missed field goal. That was true last Saturday as well, as the Nittany Lions needed every point they could get their hands as they staved off an upset bid from Appalachian State. While the defense was missing tackles left and right, Pinegar was busy drilling the football between the uprights time and again.

Pinegar finished the game a perfect five-for-five on his extra point attempts, and converted his one field goal attempt of the day, a 32-yarder just before halftime. James Franklin was impressed by Pinegar’s poise during his debut.

“I thought Jake was calm, cool, and collected and did his job,” Franklin said. “He did what he was supposed to do and it’s going to allow us to build on that for the rest of the season.”

On the Wednesday before the game, James Franklin gave some insight about how he planned to use Pinegar this season. Penn State’s head coach noted that he would try to keep Pinegar from kicking deep field goals in the opening stretch of the season to build up the freshman’s confidence.

“We don’t want to be in a situation where he thinks his range is ‘one,’ and then we don’t put him out there and he doesn’t think we have confidence in him to do it,” Franklin said. “We want it to build.”

Also making his debut last Saturday was freshman Rafael Checa. Checa was tasked with kickoff duties against Appalachian State, and the atmosphere inside Beaver Stadium made the freshman’s eyes grow wide.

“Checa goes to run out there and his eyes were this big,” Franklin said. “I just tell him that this is no different than Saint John’s vs. DeMatha, you have been doing this your whole career.”

Checa showed his powerful boot all afternoon and even successfully converted an onside kick.

This kick is what pinpoint accuracy looks like at its finest. pic.twitter.com/HSZT49NEfJ

— Onward State (@OnwardState) September 1, 2018

Gaining experience kicking in front of more than 105,000 raucous fans inside Beaver Stadium will help Pinegar and Checa during pressure-filled situations similar to what they faced on Saturday.

It’s very possible that at some point this season the Nittany Lions will need Pinegar to come up with a do or die field goal in order to win a close game. The composure he showed during his first game last Saturday should give Franklin confidence in his freshman place kicker going forward.