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Soldner, a backup kicker from Manheim Township High School, is a second-year walk-on player who was redshirted last year.
He has no biography in the media guide. He was nowhere to be found at Penn State's football media day in August.
He's even been hard to find on the sidelines during games. At 6-foot-1, 209 pounds, he's big for a kicker but modest-sized compared to his teammates. He has the same uniform number, 28, as starting free safety Drew Astorino.
And he started the season no higher than third string at his position, behind incumbent junior Collin Wagner and highly-recruited freshman Anthony Fera.
Slowly, quietly, Soldner has started to gain some traction.
"I definitely feel like I've improved a lot," Soldner said by telephone Thursday. "I've gotten a lot stronger due to our strength training program, and I'm hitting the ball a lot more solid. Being around both Anthony and Collin has been great for me."
There are people close to the program who wonder if Soldner hasn't passed both Wagner and Fera. That's only based on practices and pre-game warm-ups, of course, since Wagner has done all the in-game placements and kickoffs.
For what it's worth, Soldner made the first road trip of his career when he dressed for the Northwestern game Oct. 31 in Evanston.
That coincides with an apparent finalizing of a decision to redshirt Fera.
"That's definitely because they want to save Anthony's redshirt," Soldner said. "It was a smart move by the coaches."
Fera, a true freshman from Texas who originally verbally-committed to Michigan before choosing Penn State, has been categorized by coach Joe Paterno and others as strong-legged but erratic.
"I wouldn't say erratic," Soldner said of Fera. "The transition from kicking off the tee (in high school) to the ground is tough. And, you have to get to the ball faster. It can be hard to adjust to that."
Despite its arcane mechanics, kicking doesn't get talked about much in detail. But when Soldner talks about getting to the ball faster, he means in tenths of a second. A good figure for a college kicker is about 1.2 seconds or better. In the NFL, it's closer to 1.1.
Soldner guessed that at Township, he usually got to the ball in around 1.3 seconds.
"We had a pretty good operation," he said of his high-school snappers and holders and special teams in general. "The only really bad thing is if you get a wobbly (snapped) ball."
One place real improvement takes place is in the weight room, where kickers go through a circuit heavy on the leg-presses, curls and extensions.
"You go through two (players) at a time with one trainer," Soldner said. "They're always watching you, telling you to slow down, or watching your form.
"If you can't get all the reps, they help you get them. It helps you so much."
Penn State's special teams have come under fire lately. The punt and punt-return teams were awful, and crucially so, in Saturday's 24-7 loss to Ohio State. A punt blocked and return for a touchdown was the decisive play in the Nittany Lions' other loss, to Iowa.
Paterno famously, or infamously, has never employed a special-teams coach, a choice that gets heavily criticized in times like these. Instead, specific special teams are the responsibility of individual assistant coaches.
Of the two units Soldner works with, the kickoff team is coached by defensive-backs coach Kermit Buggs, and the field goal team is under wide receivers coach Mike McQueary.
"The meetings that I'm in on are pretty in-depth," Soldner said. "You can tell the coaches have paid a lot of attention to it. When we have had problems, you can see them trying to adjust."
Indiana, which comes to Beaver Stadium Saturday (noon, Big Ten Network) has a kick returner, Ray Fisher, who's returned 17 for 635 yards (38 per return) and two TDs.
Paterno has promised personnel changes on the return units, and Soldner said he has noticed some defensive starters on those units in practice this week.
Penn State is a 17.5-point favorite. Let's say the Lions blow out the Hoosiers. Let's say the second-string offense scores a touchdown in the final minutes.
Any chance Soldner gets to kick the PAT?
"These next couple games are really important to us," he said. "I'm definitely ready to go in and kick, but there's not too much chance of it happening this year."
Soldner is an odd case in that he was not highly recruited out of high school despite being a first-team USA Today All-American. He had no Division 1-A scholarship offers.
He's not complaining.
"The football's been great, a great opportunity," he said. "In my major, supply chain and information systems, they have the top program in the country. I'm definitely happy with Penn State."
