Think harder!

If the season started today, backup punter Andrew Samson would be the Penn football team's starting kicker. But just over a week before the opening kickoff, this decision is far from set in stone.

His name is penciled in. No, make that dry-erased in.

This is because for a kicker, mental toughness is equally important as physical toughness.

Just take last year's kicker Derek Zoch. Two years ago, he went 11 for 17. No that's not extra points, he actually hit a pretty solid 65 percent of his field goals that year to go along with a respectable 27-for-31 performance on extra points.

One year later however, Zoch missed a clutch field goal, then got publicly criticized a little, then missed another field goal, lightly blamed some more, and so it went on.

All four of these incoming kickers -- Samson, A.J. Nobile, Dave Kuncio and Trevor Charlston -- no doubt have talent, but they will each have to show head coach Al Bagnoli that they can perform when the heat is on them.

"That becomes the variable, because a lot of what you do is having resiliency," Bagnoli said. "You miss one, and you can't let that linger because the next one may win the game. So far the kids have been pretty resilient. But to say we know the answer, I can't say that right now until it actually happens."

Last year's 7-for-15 mark is far from good enough. Needless to say, when you lose four Ivy League games by eight points, you can't afford to leave any points on the board.