Big week for Pitt punter Caleb Junko as he earns scholarship, starting job

After participating in some light stretching and then booting a couple of balls high into the air at the onset of Thursday’s Pitt football practice, Caleb Junko took a timeout and headed to a familiar spot occupied by his grandfather, legendary former Pitt assistant Bob Junko.

“How are you doing?” the beloved elder statesman asked his grandson.

“Good,” responded Caleb, a redshirt sophomore punter from Akron, Ohio.

Actually, make that “great” because the 6-foot-1, 210-pound Junko received some uplifting news this week.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi confirmed that Junko, a walk-on the past two seasons, would start the year as the Panthers’ No. 1 punter after he was awarded a scholarship Wednesday, the second Pitt player this week to do so.

Former walk-on linebacker Nick Lapi, also a redshirt sophomore, received a scholarship Tuesday.

“There’s always a competition,” Narduzzi said, “but right now, Caleb will line up and be our starting punter against Wofford. We’ll see how it goes. He had a great camp.”

The Panthers open the season against the FCS Terriers on Sept. 2 at Acrisure Stadium.

After seeing no game action in his first season, Junko eventually took over last year as Pitt’s primary punter when Sam Vander Haar was benched after his average dipped below 39 yards, and Cam Guess, the team’s regular holder, managed just a 35.5-yard average on 12 attempts. Junko appeared in seven games.

Junko averaged 48.7 yards on his 12 punts, but that number was aided by a Sun Bowl-record 85-yarder against UCLA.

Junko won the punting job this week over Elon transfer Jeff Yurk and Guess, a redshirt junior walk-on from Belle Vernon.

“It wasn’t an easy decision. Jeff Yurk had a great camp, as well,” Narduzzi said. “But that’s kind of the direction we went.”

Seeing a walk-on moving up the ladder is a satisfying experience for Narduzzi.

“The hard work these kids put in … When you’ve got extra scholarships available and you can give one to someone who truly, truly earned it and worked for it, there’s no better thing than that,” Narduzzi said.

Narduzzi appeared relieved — for now, at least — that the Panthers’ punting picture seemed clearer.

“We spend a lot of time on punts. I like that,” he said. “I want to see our punt team soar. Not only the punter, but the protection and the whole deal. We’ve just done a lot of work and detailed it out. I’m excited about that.”

Despite Junko’s 85-yarder in the Sun Bowl, which also was a school record and the longest punt ever in a bowl game, earning a scholarship took him by surprise.

“It caught me completely off-guard,” he said. “I was in shock.”

Then, to learn he won the starting job the next day?

“It’s pretty cut and dried. It’s not like grading a quarterback with receivers and a line,” Pitt special teams coordinator Andre Powell said. “You catch the ball and put it up in the air and put it where you need to put it. Caleb has a strong leg, but there are a lot of fundamentals and technique that go along with that job.”

Junko learned quickly that Powell is not adept at softening the facts. With Powell, Junko said, you know where you stand.

“He’s fantastic,” Junko said. “If I didn’t have him pushing me — he tells you how it is. If you have a bad punt, he’ll tell you, ‘That was a bad punt. You need to be better.’ With a coach not sugar-coating things, it really helps to push you as a player.”

Back at his spot, Bob Junko was fighting some emotions as he looked in the direction of his grandson, who’d returned to the practice field at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

“I’m really proud of him,” Bob said. “Good for him.”

Bob Junko, now 77, retired last season after serving 54 years as a college coach, including 30 with the Panthers.

“I’ve been blessed,” he said as he lounged in a folding chair emblazoned with Pitt colors.

The Junkos are a football family.

Caleb’s brother, Josh, is entering his senior year as a walk-on receiver at Pitt. Their dad, Jeff, and uncle, Mike, played football at Akron, and another uncle, Jay, played wide receiver and punted for Pitt.

And Bob Junko, the Washington County native and Trinity High graduate, starred in college at Tulsa as an inside linebacker, earning All-America honorable mention in 1967.

Now, Caleb Junko is writing his own chapter at Pitt.

“I look at last season as I had to step up and kind of save us from a disastrous punting situation,” he said. “I know I only had a small sample size and I know I had some hiccups in there, but I think in the position of a punter, you need to just be able to come back one at a time. I feel like I really have earned the spot and shown the coaches I can be a consistent punter and, hopefully, lead us to be the best punt team in the nation.”