Patrick Mansell
strategist. He knows a ton more about
football than I do. I'm not going to
judge what he's thinking. I'm just going
to do my job when he calls my number."
And that meant making some
changes. "Tweaks," Ficken called them,
adding, "They're not something that
someone who doesn't know a whole lot
about kicking would notice."
The first: aligning his plant foot. It
had been "too open," Ficken said, and
the result was a lack of accuracy. "I'm
a lot more consistent in the way I'm
doing it now," he said.
The second: slowing down. Early in
the season, Ficken's foot was connecting
with the ball 1.2 seconds after the
snap, which he said is particularly
fast. Now, by concentrating and relaxing
and taking a slower first step, he's
taking between 1.3 and 1.35 seconds.
"You wouldn't think a 10th of a second
would make a huge difference," Ficken
