PROVO — While BYU placekicker Justin Sorensen's status for next week's season-opener remains unclear, Riley Stephenson just keeps kicking.
Stephenson is the Cougars' starting punter, and Sorensen's backup on kickoffs and placekicking.
Is Stephenson planning on handling all the kicking chores against Washington State?
"I think it's still too early to tell," said the senior from St. George. "But if I'm the guy to do field goals and kickoffs, I feel like I'll be ready. My practices the last few weeks have been awesome."
Sorensen underwent offseason back surgery and hasn't been able to do much during fall camp.
"Justin still isn't back all the way," coach Bronco Mendenhall said after Tuesday's practice. "The sooner the better. But once he is able to kick, then I'll assess how accurate he is, how comfortable is, and what his range is."
Throughout the offseason, meanwhile, Stephenson has been honing his placekicking skills.
"If you can do both punting and kicking, you need to be doing both, even if you just punt or kick, because you never know if the other guy is going to go down and you're going be called upon to do punts or field goals or whatever it might be," Stephenson said. "It's definitely something I've been working on. It's unfortunate that Justin's messed up his back. But I feel like I'm ready if called upon."
As a sophomore in 2010, Stephenson booted 64 kickoffs. But in his three seasons at BYU, he hasn't attempted a field goal or point-after touchdown in a game. It wasn't until BYU's first scrimmage of fall camp at LaVell Edwards Stadium a couple of weeks ago that Stephenson kicked his first PAT at that venue.
"After I kicked that first PAT, I got that monkey off my back," he said. "It was a little nerve-wracking. Once I got that first one down, that's all that I needed. I feel like I'm good to go now."
At Pine View High, Stephenson did all of the punting and placekicking.
"My specialty then was kickoff, not so much punt," he said. "I feel like I'm kind of equally good at all three now. It's a lot of hard work in the summer and it's starting to pay off."
Stephenson played a big role in BYU's last game, a victory over Tulsa at the Armed Forces Bowl last December. He boomed eight punts for 335 yards, including seven punts that landed inside the 20-yard line. He had two punts over 50 yards. The Cougars' special teams also recovered a muffed punt to set up one touchdown.
