Blue White Illustrated

FOCUS GROUP ure, you can call timeout if you want to ice a kicker. That's how it's done in actual football games. But in practice? Anything goes. So when James Franklin and his coaching sta6 were looking to get inside Sam Ficken's head this spring, they didn't bother with the usual football orthodoxy. They used every arrow in their quiver. As it turned out, they had a pretty big quiver. Ficken would line up to attempt a 5eld goal and suddenly hear an air horn sound. Or maybe he would get a face full of water. Or maybe he would discover that the ball was soaking wet. The coaches tried everything they could to rattle the senior place-kicker, and it did have an impact, at least initially. "The 5rst time caught me a little o6- guard," Ficken admitted. "But you get dis- tractions in games. Maybe not water squirting you in the eye, or an air horn in your ear. But I think it does de5nitely help with your focus through the whole process of kicking. The 5rst day, it was de5nitely surprising, but I've grown to endorse it. It's a challenge that I look forward to." The coaches used more than just air horns and water bottles to test Ficken's composure. They set up the team's prac- tices so that his kicks determined whether players were forced to do sprints before wrapping up for the day. When Ficken made his kicks, practice was over. When he missed them, everyone ran. "There's a little bit of pressure involved, which I think is a good thing," Ficken said. "That's something we didn't really get with the old sta6. It's something new that I like and that will transfer over to the 5eld really well." It apparently translated into a stellar performance throughout the o6-season workouts. By all accounts, Ficken was one of the standouts of Franklin's 5rst spring at Penn State. The 5rst-year coach re- peatedly praised him for his e6ort, and he was presented with a new award at hal7ime of the Blue-White Game aimed at recognizing the Nittany Lions' out- standing special teams performer. Said Franklin, "I think Ficken's had a great spring." Expected to start for the third season in a row – everything these days is provisional given the competitive atmosphere the sta6 is looking to create – Ficken is coming o6 a season in which he hit 15 of 23 5eld goal attempts and 41 of 42 PATs. Those numbers include a 54-yarder against Kent State, which ranks as the longest 5eld goal by a Penn State kicker in Beaver Sta- dium history. Of course, the stats might have been even better if not for a couple of setbacks. The 5rst was a leg injury that bothered him late in the year. Ficken refused to blame the injury for any of his troubles, but he 5nished the year by missing three of his last four attempts. The second setback was a hand injury that holder Ryan Keiser su6ered during the nonconference season. That one de5- nitely did have an impact. Keiser had been the Nittany Lions' holder since his redshirt freshman season, and Ficken's accuracy declined precipitously when his partner wasn't on the 5eld. With Keiser holding, Ficken went 7 of 8, his only miss coming on a 57-yard attempt against UCF. With Keiser sidelined – Alex Butterworth and Adam Geiger 5lled in – Ficken was 8 of 15. Keiser was holding again this spring, and Ficken was excited to have him back. S | S P R I N G F O O T B A L L W R A P In the face of heavy pressure from his new coaches, senior kicker Sam Ficken enjoys a stellar spring SWING STATE Ficken re- ceived high praise from Franklin throughout spring practice. He kicked well even though the coaches tried novel ways to distract him, from water bottles to air horn blasts. Photo by Steve Manuel

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