Penn State ended up making a change at kicker on Saturday night following two shorter range misses by starter Sander Sahaydak that kept six points off the board in the first half the Nittany Lions’ eventual 38-15 win over West Virginia.
The misses — one from 38 yards and the other from 34 — were both pushed right by Sahaydak before he was eventually benched in favor of Columbia transfer Alex Felkins.
“It was very close,” Penn State coach James Franklin said of the kicking competition during camp. “It really could have went either way. I think if you look at it early on, Felkins had the lead, then Sander kind of took the lead late in training camp, probably the last week, but it was still very close. It was close enough that after you missed two field goals [that you go] to go to the other guy. I can’t tell you my plan moving forward. Obviously, we made the change for the game and we’ll discuss it. There will be competition all year long at every position. But we have the depth that if it’s not a guy’s night, we have somebody else that we can put in at really every position, but we obviously have not made any decisions.”
Penn State’s woes as kicker are not a huge surprise for a program that did not enter the season with an established kicker or punter in rotation. For his, part Felkins would connect on a 25-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter and was perfect on extra point attempts. In the punting game, Riley Thompson’s first attempt managed just 29 yards before a 46-yarder later on in the game.
Who gets the nod in Week 2 remains to be seen, but one might imagine that a game against Delaware might be a less daunting foe and atmosphere to regain some confidence. If not, one can imagine that field goals could become a talented Nittany Lions’ team’s Achilles heel.
