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CORNER CONTINUED FROM 11 SAM FICKEN "In practice I make almost every field goal we take, and it's like a game situation. ... It's just finally paying off – all those little details are making me more consistent." John Beale said, "but when the ball is getting down and you have a half-second to judge where it is, it helps a lot." The third: rounding out his leg swing. It was too flat, Ficken said, which meant that he wasn't aiming exactly toward the upright. By taking the leg up higher, "that gives the ball a better flight path." Additionally, this has prevented his kicks from tailing off. "There is a lot of credit that you have to give to him because he's really worked at it," O'Brien said in mid-November. "When you're kicking better and better, you're gaining more and more confidence and he's a very, very laid-back guy who cares about his teammates, wants to do well. It's nice to see him improve like he has." Ficken worked out the three tweaks with Butler and primarily with Gould, who went from a solid kicker with the Nittany Lions to an undrafted NFL free agent to a construction worker in Mill Hall, Pa., to a Pro Bowl kicker for the Bears. "Look at him," Ficken said. "He wasn't the best here, but now he's the best in the NFL." Ficken said he and Gould text frequently and that they made use of the Hudl iPhone app to work on his technique. He also said he never lost confidence. "In practice, I make almost every field goal we take, and it's like a game situation – the rush, the line in front of you, the coaches are all yelling at you," Ficken said. "It's pretty gamelike. That aspect hasn't changed a lot. It's just finally paying off – all of those little details are making me more consistent." In the off-season, Ficken said, he's going to work to strengthen his leg and to continue refining his technique so he's no longer in a situation in which he needs to kick so many balls in practice during the season. And he's going to enjoy how this season ended. "It feels good to have that big a turnaround," he said. "The hard work really paid off." September, no one foresaw that Zach Zwinak would rush for 1,000 yards. But that is exactly what happened, as Zwinak finished the season rushing for at least 100 yards in six of the team's last eight games. He capped his season with a 179-yard effort on 36 carries against Wisconsin in the Lions' finale. For the season, Zwinak rushed for exactly 1,000 yards on 203 carries, enough for an average of 83.3 rushing yards per game and 4.9 yards per carry. He was the No. 1 reason why Penn State had one of the most balanced offenses in the Big Ten in the second half of the season. This was an offense that finished the season averaging 417.9 yards per game. "[Zwinak] came out there and really did a good job of doing what we coached him to do." O'Brien said. "He's a tough kid. He can run. He's faster than people think he is. He's a 235-pound guy. He's strong, and he's a punishing runner. "Are there things he needs to get better at? Of course there are. He's got to get better at ball security. [But] he's a guy who has done a great job for us this year." Nine players return on offense who started at least three games this fall and, despite the losses of Hill, Mauti, Hodges, Morris, Sean Stanley and Pete Massaro on defense, I'm not sure if the media will undervalue the talent that's on Penn State's team going into the 2013 season like it did in 2012. But that may all depend on whether Penn State finds an answer to its biggest question going into the 2013 season: Who is going to take over for McGloin at quarterback? It'll be a wide-open competition this spring pitting sophomore-to-be Steven Bench against California juco standout Tyler Ferguson, who commited to the Nittany Lions on Dec. 14, one day after Jake Waters chose Kansas State. The headlines produced when spring practice begins in March should be very interesting.

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