Re: kicker Joseph Bulovas just decommited from GaTech
One concern I have is his stats on 24/7 sports and HUDL. In 2015 he was 7/14 on FG with a long of 38. In 2016 he was 11/25 with a long of 50. Not to be negative but those stats are worse than Griffith. He was 89% on PAT''s last year which also isn't great. Looks like he has a strong leg but, like Griffith, accuracy may not be his strong suit.
I agree that those are very concerning. I don't like looking at high school stats because they seem to vary and it's hard to get context, but his none of his punting or place kicking numbers really jump out to me (in a good way at least). He seems to have a big leg, but by contrast Shelley was automatic within his range and did not have a big leg.
The interesting thing though is that there seems to be a lot of potential there. He can punt as well, so he becomes a backup plan at that position I suppose. It does seem to me that he'll have to improve his accuracy to become the primary place kicker. It does seem possible that he end up in a Cade Foster like position, where he does kickoffs and long field goals. It also seems possible that like AG, he end up being a backup at first. Neither of these are ideal of course, Alabama fans are hoping for an immediate impact. It's hard to imagine though that in the very least there isn't a battle at the PK position between he and Andy.
The Andy is 14/15 on PATs at the college level. Both his missed PAT and missed field goal came in his first season at Ole Miss. I saw where Andy was 15/21 on field goals at one point in his senior year, not stellar but that puts him in line with AG on a decent year. This sentence was important: "
He has not yet messed [sic]
an extra point kick.". Andy kicked a lot of field goals in high school, he set the state record. So, it does seem to me that if Joseph is erratic in the very least Andy could do the short stuff.
Oh yeah, Joseph can play quarterback to, that part is interesting. It seems like it would have more value if he was a punter, but at this point all in all Joseph feels like a clear plan b and kind of a backup plan vs. a guy we can anticipate coming in right away and taking over all the PK duties. One thing Alabama fans have to be careful about, is getting excited because Alabama gets a fairly highly ranked kicker. Alabama has had highly ranked kickers, the problem is a few of them didn't perform at an elite level in college.