The life of a football kicker can be cruel. It can test one’s mind and heart. It can crush the will of even the most talented ones. Sander Sahaydak has had opportunities to crumble at Penn State, yet he’s been resilient. “This is a place where I always dreamed about playing,” he said. “It was knowing I shouldn’t quit on myself and my journey just because of one bad game. That really motivated me to stay and show what I can do at this level.” After losing his job last year because of two missed kicks in the season opener and after beginning this season with a miss, Sahaydak made two field goals in the Nittany Lions’ 34-27 win over Bowling Green two weeks ago. “I’d say my confidence was in the same place (before and after the Bowling Green game),” he said in his first interview since Media Day in early August. “I know that it’s easy to get hung up on one kick. I get that. But I approached the week the exact same way that I approached West Virginia and the same way that I approached camp. “It’s the same with how I attacked the bye week and how I attacked this week.” Sahaydak’s mindset was different last year after he missed field goals of 38 and 34 yards against West Virginia in the opener before a prime time crowd of 110,747. Penn State coach James Franklin went to Alex Felkins after Sahaydak’s second miss and stayed with Felkins as the kicker the rest of the season. “It was absolutely hard,” Sahaydak said. “I was incredibly hard on myself. It was really tough for me. It took a day or two to really get back into the swing of things and process what happened. “That was my first collegiate start kicking field goals. It was definitely not the way I wanted to start.” Expectations for him have been lofty since his days at Liberty High School, where he kicked 19 field goals, including ones of 52 and 53 yards. He was considered one of the top high school kickers in the country, but he was redshirted as a freshman and spent the 2022 season as Jake Pinegar’s backup. He beat out Felkins, a transfer from Columbia, and others during preseason camp last year before the two misses against West Virginia. With hindsight, Sahaydak said his demotion might have been the best thing for him. “Being benched and sitting behind Felkins gave me the time to focus on what I needed to do to get better,” he said in reflection. “I look at it now as maybe I wasn’t ready then. It gave me a whole year to focus on my technique and my mindset and attacking each day as if I was the starter.” He and new special teams coordinator Justin Lustig have had many conversations about the 2023 West Virginia game and how to get over it. Sahaydak began preseason camp in a different frame of mind, even after Penn State brought in Tulsa transfer Chase Meyer to compete with him. “I know I made some tweaks before camp and I think they paid off for me a lot,” he said. “I thought I had a good camp.” He had a slightly higher success rate in camp than Meyer and redshirt freshman Ryan Barker, who’s from Kennett High School. He made kicks during unique pressure situations created by Franklin and Lustig. “Sometimes they get a little out of hand with the water and the Gatorade and stuff like that,” Sahaydak said. “It does help us a lot in the sense that it makes practice harder than it is in the game. I know if I step out there this week against Kent State, there’s not going to be a head coach throwing Gatorade in my eyes from 2 yards away.” He’s made 3-of-7 field goal tries and 16-of-16 PATs in his career. He’s learned some tips to better cope with the natural anxiety that comes with his job. “The mental side of kicking is an absolute monster,” he said. “When we’re kicking off sticks in warmups, that part is 90% technical and 10% mental. When I get on the field in a game, it’s 10% technical and 90% mental. It’s everything. It’s something I struggled with even into last year. “Day in and day out, you’re fighting for your job. It’s that way especially for us because kicking is so black and white. It’s either you made it or missed it. There’s no subjectivity to it. It’s incredibly mental.”