Kickers That Wear # 97 You Know Stink-Bruce’s Thought Of The Day

Welcome to the world of having kickers decide your fate Bill O'Brien. The New Penn State coach kept sending out kicker Sam Ficken, and good old Sammy kept missing, again and again and again and yes again.

The skinny little kicker wearing a defensive lineman's # 97 missed 4 field goals and an extra point as the Lions lost again 17-16 at Virginia!

In fairness to Ficken he has been pressed into action by the departure of Anthony Fera, who was 1 of the departures from Penn State after the school was handed severe penalties by the NCAA surrounding the Jerry Sandusky case. Fera who transferred to Texas was 14/17 last season.

Ficken showed he is equally  adept at missing from all distances. He missed from 20, 38, 40 and the killer of all a miss from 42 to end the ballgame. The play before the final miss for some reason Nittany Lion QB Mat McGloin centered the ball but lost a few yards doing so making the kick longer by about 3-4 yards then it should have been. O'Brien thought the percentages were better from the middle of the field- He thought wrong!

Ficken also had an extra point blocked after Penn State scored a TD early in the 4th quarter. The kick would have made the score 14-10. At worst after Virginia scored late to take the lead for good at 17-16  the extra point would have tied the game and forced OT.

The last time a kicker missed so many kicks was UAB kicker Josh Zahn who missed 5 fg's in a Blazer loss at Tennessee in 2010..

The missed kicks over shadowed a great defensive performance by the Lions. Virginia gained only 298 yards, just  32 yards on the ground as PSU dominated field position most of the ball game.

Penn State  is 0-2 for the 1st time since 2001 after losing a tough game last week at home vs Ohio. It is only the 5th time in 45 years PSU has started a season 0-2. They try to get in the win column next Saturday, back home vs Navy!