Solid performer: Walk-on punter Boone leads PSU

By Guy Cipriano

The ironies of college football are prevalent in Penn State sophomore Jeremy Boone’s life.

In the football hotbed of Guatemala City, a group of Boone’s relatives huddle and watch Penn State games on a satellite dish. All 12 games are viewed, including the ones on the Big Ten Network, the same channel Boone’s parents, David and Sylvia, can’t get in their Mechanicsburg home.

It’s not exactly the scenario Sylvia envisioned.

Sylvia always thought soccer would be her son’s athletic forte.

“He had a special skill for the sport,” she said.

Today, Sylvia understands athletic destinies change.

She understands why her son creates stirs in Beaver Stadium, Mechanicsburg, and yes, Guatemala City. She understands why some of her relatives watch football more intently than futbol. The contingent of Boone’s Guatemala supporters includes a relative who once dropped $250 to attend a Pittsburgh Steelers -New England Patriots game.

Part of the football love in Guatemala can be attributed to a special skill held by the youngest of Sylvia’s three children.

Judging by the statistics, her son punts a football better than anybody in the Big Ten.

That’s right. Jeremy Boone, the son of a Guatemala native, a walk-on and a late arrival to competitive football, enters today’s game at Michigan State averaging a conference-best 42.9 yards per punt.

“It’s beyond words,” David said. “We’re just thrilled. We don’t miss a minute.”

Okay, Boone’s mother sometimes misses a few seconds.

Sylvia called her son’s first punt of every game “the one that breaks the ice.”

But she eventually settles because she knows something others don’t.

“The more pressures he has,” she said, “the better he does. He has always been like that.” Receiving career ends

He figured he would punt. He figured why would a Big Ten program want a 5-foot-9 athlete for any other purpose?

He figured wrong.

Penn State’s coaches told Boone before he stepped on the practice field the Nittany Lions almost never carry two full-time punters.

The coaches told Boone they wanted a versatile player to fill one of the final roster spots. As a high school senior, Boone caught 84 passes for 1,080 yards in Mechanicsburg High School’s wide-open offense. The coaches knew this, so Boone’s college career started as a receiver.

That’s fine, Boone thought.

He never encountered problems catching a football. Plus, he played varsity baseball and basketball and handled every challenged flipped his way. He hit multiple 3-pointers with the hands of massive Harrisburg players in his face during a District 3 Class AAAA playoff game at the Giant Center. He fielded numerous balls laced in the hole as a freshman second baseman against a State College baseball team that sent multiple players into the minor leagues.

So why couldn’t he catch a few passes in a football practice?

Jeremy then turned around, and an Anthony Morelli pass soared through his hands.

He turned around again, and dropped a Michael Robinson pass.

He ran both routes wrong and received an earful from wide receivers coach Mike McQueary. Think Joe Paterno yelling at McQueary on the sidelines during a Saturday afternoon.

“That was just about the end of my wide receiving career with the offense,” Boone said.

The coaches kept Boone around anyway.

He spent the season working with Jeremy Kapinos, a strong-legged punter who started four straight years. Jeremy and Jeremy punted almost every day.

The one Jeremy prepared for games against Ohio State, Michigan and Florida State. The other Jeremy prepared for the 2006 Blue-White game.

“A lot of punting is psychological and that was the biggest thing with Kapinos,” Boone said. “I learned what he was thinking so I could relate that to the future if I’m ever in that situation.”

The circumstances didn’t change much last year, although Tennessee replaced Florida State as the closer on Penn State’s schedule. Boone still watched Jeremy.

But, at times, Boone gazed forward and visualized life without Kapinos.

Penn State defensive line coach Larry Johnson, who handles the punt team, started envisioning life after Kapinos when he opened a tape sent by a diminutive Boone in 2005. Johnson saw a punter with some technical flaws yet a strong leg.

Boone doesn’t remember how many tapes he sent to coaches before his senior year. But he does remember what two schools kept his tapes — Penn State and Division I-AA Delaware.

“Coach Johnson saw something in me that not many teams saw,” Boone said. “For him to give me an opportunity to walk-on to Penn State, and try to earn a varsity spot was something special.”

Goalie turned punter

Boone’s punting career has three possible starting points.

u First, Boone started playing soccer at age five, exciting Sylvia, David and anybody else who watched. Boone, a goalie, ended his soccer career in middle school because of an overzealous coach.

“He loved going from sport to sport,” David said. “One reason he wanted out of soccer was because he had a coach who didn’t like the boys playing any other sports.”

u Second, Boone started watching his older brother, Sean, play football, and couldn’t resist grabbing the ball and emulating some of his kicks.

“Jeremy’s motor skills were very developed and he was so coordinated that he could play with Sean and his friends,” said Sylvia, whose sons are separated by seven years. “He would see Sean pass and kick the ball. Jeremy would grab it from him and try the same thing.”

u Finally, Boone’s punting career might have started when Sylvia allowed him to play organized football in ninth grade.

“I saw American football, and I saw all these people being hurt and thrown around a lot,” Sylvia said. “I was being a protective mother because I thought it was going to be extremely hurtful. He tried it one year and really enjoyed it. That was the important thing to me.”

Boone punted as a freshman. He ditched football as a sophomore. He returned to the sport as a junior and developed into Mechanicsburg’s starting punter.

After the season, he attended a camp at Penn State, an event that convinced him to take punting seriously.

“I didn’t have any formal instruction,” Boone said. “I was hitting a spiral and I didn’t know how I was hitting a spiral. I was hitting and hoping at that point. I focused on it my senior year because I knew that it was a possible avenue I could take.”

Big pressure, big punts

Like Sylvia said, her son handles pressure well.

But nothing in Boone’s athletic career, not even the day McQueary chewed him out, compared to his first college punt.

There he was, punting before 107,678 fans against Florida International. Everybody knew the punt would have no impact on the outcome.

Still, Boone had just held off true freshman Ryan Breen to win the starting job and this represented his first chance to impress a massive audience.

Life after Jeremy started with Jeremy punting from the Golden Panthers’ 36-yard line. The punt rolled into the end zone.

“I remember looking at Coach Johnson and hearing him say, ‘You got to...,’” Boone said. “He was screaming at me to put it inside the 20. From that day on, he stressed to me the importance of putting it inside the 20.”

Eleven weeks later, Boone has turned into one of Penn State’s most reliable players. He has dropped 22 punts inside the 20 and only two more into the opponent’s end zone. The Nittany Lions’ are allowing just 2.2 yards per return and their 40.6 net punting average ranks second in Division I.

“There have been a lot of situations where he has changed the field position,” junior linebacker Sean Lee said.

Boone almost flipped the entire field in Penn State’s favor against Illinois. As gusts approaching 30 miles per hour fluttered into Memorial Stadium, Boone started some sideline chatter, telling teammates, including his reliable long snapper Chris Mauriello, he wanted an opportunity to boot a ball with the wind at his back.

The opportunity arrived in the second quarter, and Boone will never forget watching gunner Knowledge Timmons chasing his punt.

“I was in the end zone and Chris gave me a great snap and I got a good drop,” he said. “When I hit it, I couldn’t even see it. All I could see was Knowledge running.”

The ball stopped 70 yards from the line of scrimmage.

The punt might have been the product of some impressive genes.

Sylvia played softball and volleyball at an elite level in Guatemala. His sister, Kimberly, played field hockey, basketball and soccer. David, who was born in Los Angeles and met Sylvia in Guatemala, dabbled in every sport. Sean planned to play college football before an injury derailed his career.

But the thousands of games played by the family never prepared a mother for a season like this.

“It’s overwhelming,” Sylvia said. “I have been involved in many, many games. But every time I go to the stadium I get chills. It never changes. The big stadium in Guatemala City has less than 50,000 seats. If I feel chills, I can’t imagine what Jeremy is feeling. How he does it every time is beyond me.”

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