Backlash over Ficken's misses spills onto Penn State's campus
After Penn State lost to Virginia 17-16, fans back in State College zeroed in on Ficken, a 19-year-old sophomore from Indiana, as the scapegoat. Ficken finished the day 1-for-5 on field goal attempts -- including a miss from 20 yards -- as well as a missed extra point.
Backlash over Ficken's misses spills onto Penn State's campus
When Sam Ficken lined up to attempt an extra point after a Penn State touchdown in the fourth quarter, Virginia fans standing on the grassy hill behind the end zone began to taunt the Nittany Lions' kicker.
"Nine-ty-Sev-en!" they chanted, referring to Ficken's jersey number. "Nine-ty-Sev-en!"
Such taunts are expected from the opposing team. It's not expected from your peers.
But after Penn State lost to Virginia 17-16, fans back in State College zeroed in on Ficken, a 19-year-old sophomore from Indiana, as the scapegoat. Ficken finished the day 1-for-5 on field goal attempts -- including a miss from 20 yards -- as well as a missed extra point.
"As soon as it happened, my Facebook page was filled with statuses about how Penn State football was a joke," said senior Jill Heron. "Most of the statuses were from students saying that making a field goal couldn't be that hard. They basically put all the blame on the loss on Ficken."
That raw emotion spilled onto the streets of State College on Saturday night. Senior Marco Ranzi said plenty of students were talking about Ficken as they went out to bars and parties after the game.
"It was just jibber jabber," Ranzi said. "Just aggravated Nittany Lion fans."
Ranzi said he heard students yell out several things including, "You're a kicker, you only have one job to do!"and "If I was Ficken I wouldn't show my face in State College for a couple days!"
"And then lots of angry Ficken puns," Ranzi said, adding that most students claimed they could make those kicks.
A Twitter account called @SamFickensFoot was created shortly after the game. The bio on the account reads, "Just a misguided foot on a full ride."
The account is clearly a parody, and includes several tweets about how kickers performed in the NFL yesterday, mainly former Eagles kicker David Akers, who hit a 63-yard-field goal.
"Akers hits from 63 yards. I'm going to go cry now. J/k j/k I'll get there one day :)," the account tweeted on Sunday afternoon.
Ficken was not made available for comment after the game, but posted a message on his personal Twitter account (@Sficken1) at about 5 p.m. on Saturday.
"Appreciate all the support from teammates, friends, family, and nittany nation," he wrote. It was retweeted over 200 times.
After the game, Penn State players offered unrequited support for Ficken, who, in truth, was never supposed to be Penn State's starting kicker. Anthony Fera, an All-Big Ten selection last season, was supposed to handle those duties. However in wake of the NCAA sanctions, Fera transferred to Texas.
Fera made 14 of 17 field goal attempts last season.
But now, it's Ficken's job. Last year, he was just another member of the football team. When Penn State faces Navy on Saturday at Beaver Stadium, he will be the fans most visible target.
The Virginia game was just the second of Penn State's season -- a season where the Nittany Lions are not eligible to even play in a bowl game. It's not the BCS Championship game, or even the fourth or fifth game of the Big Ten schedule.
Even still, fans are looking for somewhere to place blame. Right now, Ficken is the most obvious single target.
"It happens," quarterback Matt McGloin said on Saturday. "It’s not what won or lost us the game. A couple plays here and there lost it, Sam did not lose us the game whatsoever.”
Might be true, but McGloin will have to do a lot of convincing to Nittany Nation so they believe it as well.
-Emily Kaplan
I don't blame the 19 year old sophomore. I blame the PSU Board of Trustees for throwing the Nittany Lion football program under the bus rather than admitting that the Board of Trustees, exclusively, allowed Sandusky free reign on campus. Rather than the team, the Board of Trustees should be sanctioned.— Larry17- Right on Larry17. The NCAA to Penn State is like the Buffalo Wild Wings commercial. They've rigged it so we will lose into obscurity.
NCAA 2 - PSU 0— linuxdood - Right on Larry17. The NCAA to Penn State is like the Buffalo Wild Wings commercial. They've rigged it so we will lose into obscurity.NCAA 2 - PSU 0 (HTML deleted)— linuxdood
- Way to stick by your team Penn State. As if it's not bad enough to be a NAMBLA Lion, now people that stuck with the team are being ridiculed by the very people that said they would stick with them. Well, only if they can win football games I guess.— Joe Blows
- Certainly the blame doesn't lie solely with Ficken, but he is a D1 scholarship player. He's probably been kicking since Jr High. He has to make the 20-yd FG. The longer ones...there's a bit more of an excuse. But that 20 yarder and the blocked XP, sorry...he needs to make those. Either one and they win or go to OT. Miss them all, they take a long ride home.— akh
- Most of the Penn State fans I spoke with over the weekend feel bad for the kid, understand that the circumstances surrounding the team this year make things difficult, and hold the Penn State Board of Trustees and the acting President responsible. The LA Times said it right on Sunday with the headline "Penn State is No Match for the Heavy Hand of NCAA." We know why we lost...the public's rush to punish someone for Sandusky's sins. And a dead JoePa was an easy target...one who couldn't fight back.— ags2nd
This season is Joe's fourth season on the paper's Penn State beat. He previously covered the Nittany Lions for United Press International from 1976 to 1984.
Emily Kaplan is the Inquirer’s fall intern covering the Nittany Lions. She is a senior at Penn State and has covered a variety of sports for the university’s student-run paper, The Daily Collegian. Over the last two years, she has reported for The Associated Press from State College.
A Montclair, N.J. native, she has also interned at MLB Network, NHL.com and covered the 2012 Olympics in London. Follow her on Twitter here @EKaplan24.
