Sam Ficken With the Golden Sombrero....

Penn State Football firing on all cylinders today...

The Nittany Lions have looked pretty solid today, and without jinxing anything I think we can hold on and win this one. We are currently beating the University of Virginia 16-10, with about 10:30 left in the game and Virginia controlling the ball. The offense started the game with a great five minute touchdown drive, but since then has had little success. QB Matt McGloin miraculously added two more touchdown passes, giving him four on the season. Just a reminder he had eight all of last season. The defense has been great today, not giving Virginia have a lot of room to work, and adding pressure on their quarterbacks. Someone better than UVA's Michael Rocco would have torn up our secondary.

Penn State has caused four turnovers this game but only managed 1 total yard and 3 points off of them as of now. Solid. Thankfully we have limited our mistakes, and to this point have not turned the ball over...probably because we don't have a linebacker bringing back punts this week. So far this season I have been pretty happy with Bill O'Brien, and I think he showed a lot of improvement calling the plays this week. Last week it was very lopsided, with a lot of passing or a lot of running, and not a good blend of the two on drives. He even threw a fake punt in there, so you know, good for him.

Sam Ficken; Goon

The story of the day though is the new kicker Sam Ficken. The dude is absolutely murdering it out there on the field. I think his performance today has really solidified him as one of the more consistent players on the entire team. He will be a leader and one great constant for this team for years to come. His three missed field goals today were some of the most uniform bad play I have seen in a long time. Just awful. He is now 2/6 on field goal tries this season, and he also added a blocked extra point. I guess the latter isn't really his fault but screw it, let's put that on him too.

All in all not bad so far, but there's still a lot of time yet to screw it up.

Update: They've done it 17-16 Virginia leads...1:21 left and about 70 yards to go.

Update: This may come down to Ficken...

Update: 17-16 Virginia, final. Sam Ficken may not be welcome back in State College. No, actually, he is definitely not welcome back. I am so pissed right now, this team actually played really well today, and this jerk goes 1/5 for field goals. Like what could possibly have been going through this schools mind giving this guy a scholarship? Just awful. Cancel the season. Hang it up. Mauti for president. That is all I can say right now.