LEWISBURG, Pa.
'When you're a kicker," Bucknell coach Tim Landis said after his team's double-overtime loss to Penn, "there's only two things that can happen to you and one of them is not really good."
Penn kicker Evan Nolan has been quite familiar with the "not really good" this season.
Entering Saturday's game against the Bison, the Cincinnati native had missed his last four field- goal attempts.
Three of these attempts were from within the 30-yard line. All three of those were blocked.
The fourth miss bounced off the uprights from 37 yards out.
So it was no surprise that Penn coach Al Bagnoli sent senior Bryan Arguello to kick on Saturday at Bucknell.
But Arguello was no better.
He missed two field goals and an extra point in the first half of the game.
At that point, I abandoned all hope in Penn's kicking game.
Up in the fly-infested Bucknell press box, the writers were discussing whether Penn should even attempt to kick the ball for the rest of the game.
"They should just go for two every time," said one reporter.
"They might as well go for it every time on fourth down," said another.
So when Penn needed an extra point to tie the game at the end of regulation, overtime was anything but certain.
And then out trotted Nolan.
He kicked it straight through the uprights and trotted modestly off the field.
After Bucknell kicker Ryan Korn -- who missed a game-winning field goal last year against Penn -- barely made a 47-yard field goal in the first overtime on Saturday, Penn had its backs against the wall.
The Quakers threw three incomplete passes, and judging by the state of Penn's kicking on the day, it seemed like all was lost for the Red and Blue.
And then out trotted Nolan.
Again, he kicked it straight through the uprights and started to trot modestly off the field. This time, however, he was congratulated by a host of Quakers.
"I had a rough couple of weeks, but I knew that I was a good enough kicker to make that field goal," Nolan said. "Coach told me all along that he'd kept confidence in me and he kept telling me I'd get another chance."
Who would have ever thought that without Evan Nolan, Penn would have lost to Bucknell?
Not Landis.
He said that if someone told him that Saturday's game would come down to field goals, he would have felt very confident.
"We make a 47-yarder off the upright and you force them into a [42 yarder]," he said. "You feel pretty good about your chances."
But Nolan had nothing to lose and everything to gain against the Bison. Had he come in and missed those two kicks, it really wouldn't have mattered.
Penn fans had already given up on the kicker. They would have blamed the loss on Arguello, not Nolan.
So while there was a lot riding on Nolan's two kicks, it's possible that he was feeling the least amount of pressure he had all season.
If everyone was expecting him to fail miserably, he could only exceed expectations. And that's exactly what he did.
It's not the first time Nolan has benefited from low expectations.
In Penn's opener against San Diego, the Quakers were stranded on the Toreros' 32-yard line with a few seconds remaining.
Already up 23-0, Bagnoli sent Nolan out to try a 49-yard field goal to add to the lead. While the kick was out of the range of most college kickers, the Quakers had nothing to lose by trying the long field goal.
Nolan trotted out onto the field, with nobody expecting him to hit the field goal.
He did, which heightened the Penn faithful's expectations of the kicking game going into the matchup with Villanova.
Landis feels that Saturday's experience can only help Nolan and the Quakers for the rest of the season.
"That turns his season around," he said. "He probably goes on and becomes a weapon for them. On a personal level, you feel great for that young man because you know how hard it can be when you're a kicker."
Hopefully, the Bucknell coach is right. But let's not get our expectations up.
David Burrick is a junior urban studies and philosophy, politics and economics major from Short Hills, N.J. His e-mail address is dburrick@sas.upenn.edu
