Blue White Illustrated

weeks that followed as "a roller coaster ride." "What happened at Virginia was pretty disappointing," he said. "But it's my job to keep moving forward, and I had to focus on that and my technique and think about the next kick. It was up and down. I got a lot of support from family and friends, and a lot of PSU supporters out there reached out to me – letters, emails, messages, that kind of thing. So it felt pretty good to have that support." The Nittany Lions have struggled to get their kicking game going this sea- son, a problem that was highlighted again in their victory over Northwestern. The Wildcats recovered a muffed punt deep in Penn State territory to set up a touchdown and later scored on a 75- yard punt return. Those lapses nearly resulted in a loss, as Penn State had to rally from 11 points down in the fourth quarter. Heading into their game against Iowa, the Lions were last in the Big Ten in net punting average (30.3 yards) and field goal percentage (33.3), ninth in kickoff return average (17 yards) and eighth in punt return average (6.3 yards). The only statistical category in which they were in the top half of the conference standings was kickoff cov- erage (second, 41.5 yards). Through six games, Ficken was 3 of 9 overall on field goals, but as Bill O'Brien has been quick to point out, the team's problems have involved the entire operation, not just the kicker. For example, an 18-yard field goal at- tempt at Illinois was blocked because of a breakdown up front. "We have got to coach it better and we have to execute that better," O'Brien said. "That's definitely something that we can't let happen." After the Virginia game, Ficken heard first from his family. They were on the phone as soon as Penn State's plane touched down in University Park fol- lowing the game. That night, he watched football on TV with some of his friends on the team: Deron Thompson, T.J. Rhattigan, Jordan Kerner, Angelo Man- giro and Ben Kline. Everyone tried to forget about the game for a while. In the days that followed, he received words of encouragement from fans and former players, including former Penn State place-kickers Robbie Gould, Kevin Kelly and Massimo Manca. He even heard from Minnesota Vikings kicker Blair Walsh, who played his college ball at Georgia. While the messengers varied, the message itself was consistent: "You're a good kicker, so keep your head up. Think about the next game." O'Brien has told him much the same since his rough outing in week two. The focus in practice has been on re- fining the whole snap-hold-kick process while also improving the sophomore's footwork. "What's important for all kickers, starting with Sam, is to think about the plant foot," O'Brien said. "Wherever the plant foot is pointed is where that ball is going to go. So we've done a lot of work … on his plant foot and un- derstanding that, hey, it can't be pointed in a different direction every single kick. It's gotta be the same di- rection as it relates to where we're trying to kick the football. So it's 11 guys doing a better job of protecting and Sam getting better at his overall technique." Ficken said that since the Virginia game he's also been working to keep his head down when he strikes the ball. That was one of the problems against the Cavaliers, he said. "I was pulling it up, and you're never supposed to do that as a kicker. The whole process – the snap, the hold, the kick – wasn't perfect. But that's definitely back on me. I have to make those kicks either way." Ficken said he accepts his share of the blame for the Virginia loss. "I missed four kicks," he said. "I missed a 20-yard field goal. I missed an extra point." But he's focused primarily on moving forward. The support he's gotten – particularly the emails from former players – has helped him to move on. Said Ficken, "I've gotten a lot of messages from pre- vious kickers here at Penn State, saying, 'Hey, I had rough game against so- and-so and bounced back from it. Don't worry about it. You're obviously pretty good, you're here, so move on to the next kick.' " Punt return specialist makes a sudden impact DREAM CATCHER | A top performer coming out of Class AAAA Shaler Area High School, just north of Pittsburgh, Jesse Della Valle was faced with a choice. He could accept a scholarship offer from one of the many quality Football Champi- onship Subdivision programs that were recruiting him, or he could take a shot at playing football for Penn State. "Are you going to take the money," Della Valle asked himself, "or are you going to take your dreams?" With the full support of his parents, Phil and Cindy, Della Valle chose the latter. "I just decided that my dreams were more important to me," he said. "You only get one shot in life and I wanted to take it now. "I had an interesting recruiting process. I had a lot of Division I-AA of- fers but I was also offered to be a pre- ferred walk-on at Penn State. It was kind of a decision I had to make in terms of, did I want to take a scholar- ship at a smaller school or did I want to take my shot at the big time? SEE DELLA VALLE NEXT PAGE

• Cover