Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/165129
O'BRIEN CONTINUED FROM 13 here and he's one of those freshmen who has been able to adapt quickly to the regimen of meetings and the combination of having to lift weights, condition, practice and go to class. I know it's only been a week but he seems to be ahead of the game on those things. And he's gone out on the practice field and been competitive. He has pretty good playing strength for a young guy right now, and he can field the punt, he can catch, he has good ball skills. So his journey is interesting and he's a fun guy to be around. I like tough, competitive kids and he's one of those kids. How much of a balancing act is it to integrate new concepts for Christian [Hackenberg] and game-planning toward things that he's comfortable with? Is there a timeline when it comes to getting him deeper into the playbook? You don't have the luxury of seeing them. It's the first time you've coached them in a game – not the first time S E P T E M B E R you've coached them, but going from the Lasch practice fields to MetLife Stadium is a pretty big jump. So we're figuring each other out. Now he knows what I'm like on game day and I know what he's like. It's going to be interesting going forward. He's a bright kid. He's been able to pick up so many different things in our offense. You can do more with recruiting now [after Sept. 1]. Have you changed anything in the evaluation process from what you did last year? Yeah, you're allowed to do different things with run-on candidates and things like that. No question. We will evaluate our recruiting process every single year – more than once during the year, too. I'm not going to get into the details of what we have changed, but it's evaluating your roster, figuring out what you need, who is out there interested in you. Recruiting is about a fit. Does that guy fit with your program? It's not just about collecting talent; you're trying to build a football team. 4 , 2 0 1 3 14 So we will do different things every year. The Virginia game last year for Sam Ficken was a nightmare, and the stuff he got on social media and Twitter afterward. Were you worried about his ability to rebound mentally or his psyche after that game? He's a calm guy, and I noticed that about him right away. If you remember back to the circumstances of why he was the kicker, he was in somewhat of a position battle with Anthony Fera, who came out of the spring [2012] winning the battle and after the sanctions he decided to go to Texas. Sam was kind of one of the first examples of next man up. He was our kicker. He was thrust into a tough situation and then that game starts with me. In the Virginia game, I could have done a better job of putting him in better situations – maybe going for it on a couple of those fourth downs. But I put him out there, and at the end of the day it was maybe one of the best things that happened to him. He went through that, and he took the criticism to heart. B L UE WHI T E ON L I N E . COM