Apologize for this being tardy ... like, early September tardy.
Penn St. was a football program that was absolutely wrecked this year. With the house-cleaning over the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal serving as a reason, the NCAA allowed any player to transfer to another school without sitting out a year. While most did not, many did, including a guy by the name of Anthony Fera, the Kicker who took his talents to Texas.
In his place was a guy named Sam Ficken, a guy who may or may not be on scholarship, who may or may not be a walk-on who was given the job because there was no one else who wanted to play for Penn St.
The Nittany Lions just came off a season-opening loss to Ohio at home. On September 8, they traveled to Virginia to face the Cavaliers. Now, UVA isn't a good team, but the game was neck-and-neck. It didn't have to be, though, because Ficken was missing field goals left and right all game.
Nonetheless, Penn St. was up 16-10 late in the game until the Cavs scored a touchdown with 88 seconds to play. The Nittany Lions were able to march down the field to get within field goal range. Ficken time!
Yeah, it was that kind of historically bad game. Ficken misses four of the five field goals he was asked to kick. He also missed a point after. If he was as automatically routine like most kickers, they would have won 29-17. But they didn't; they lost 17-16, and thus losing the first two games of a season for the first time in 45 years.
Didn't matter anyway; the sanctions levied by the NCAA on Penn St. for the Sandusky scandal cost them bowl eligibility for this and the next three years, and besides, they -- and Ficken -- rebounded to have a decent season. Still, losing so much that any of those kicks actually made -- any of them -- would have resulted in a win. That's how devastating and comprehensive Ficken's fuck-ups were in a loss to Virginia, a loss that is etched forever in time.
Poor bastard.
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