Alabama kicking game...

Bazza

TideFans Legend
Oct 1, 2011
35,590
21,231
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New Smyrna Beach, Florida
I find it hard to believe with all the recruiting skills you guys don't have a reliable kicker.

Is it just bad luck - or is there a valid reason you don't have one. It's not the only season this has happened either.

Serious post & question - not trying to be cute.
 

Skeeterpop

Hall of Fame
Jul 18, 2008
5,651
27
67
I find it hard to believe with all the recruiting skills you guys don't have a reliable kicker.

Is it just bad luck - or is there a valid reason you don't have one. It's not the only season this has happened either.

Serious post & question - not trying to be cute.
There is some of both. We have missed out on some elite kickers that changed their minds at the last minute.

Bama is inherently one of the most stressful kicking jobs in all of college. You are playing for one of the most intimidating coaches alive. College or Pro. Kickers are 95% mental and they can come unglued extremely easily when the take a hit to their confidence. Early on coach was very hard on his kickers. Even so much that other coaches on the team suggested he go easier. We also have never had a dedicated kicking coach until we hired Banks. So throw those all together and you have a delicate situation at place kicker. The last couple years coach interacts with the kickers much differently than he did a few years ago. Now we just need to hit on an elite kicker.
 

RammerJammer14

Hall of Fame
Aug 18, 2007
14,567
6,574
187
UA
I find it hard to believe with all the recruiting skills you guys don't have a reliable kicker.

Is it just bad luck - or is there a valid reason you don't have one. It's not the only season this has happened either.

Serious post & question - not trying to be cute.
We routinely recruit and sign great high school kickers. Then we put them on the field and they fall apart.

I am starting to seriously believe that we somehow mess with our kickers’ technique to “improve” it, and end up making him worse. I mean it’s either that or we just stink at evaluating kicker talent somehow, though I don’t know how hard it is to mess up “average good at x distance, made all PATs”.

Even our punter, which position is usually decent to extremely good for us, can’t even make a 40+yd punt this year.

JK Scott was basically the only guy who ever stood out for us, and Tiffin was a very good FG kicker after 2006.
 

TIDE-HSV

Senior Administrator
Staff member
Oct 13, 1999
84,552
39,662
437
Huntsville, AL,USA
I find it hard to believe with all the recruiting skills you guys don't have a reliable kicker.

Is it just bad luck - or is there a valid reason you don't have one. It's not the only season this has happened either.

Serious post & question - not trying to be cute.
Skeeter got it. It's a painful subject, thus my attempt to introduce it on a light note...
 

RollTide_HTTR

Hall of Fame
Feb 22, 2017
8,774
6,540
187
Skeeter got it. It's a painful subject, thus my attempt to introduce it on a light note...
I still enjoy the theory that it was part of our deal with the devil. We get CNS and unparalleled success but we will forever be cursed with kickers who are either just bad or miss the biggest kicks.
 

davefrat

Hall of Fame
Jun 4, 2002
5,172
3,894
282
Hopewell, VA
anyone see the kick in the Brown-Jets game last night by the Brown's kicker.

he kicked it and it looked like it was heading for the left pylon and then banana'd like 15 feet back to the right and went in.

my wife (who played soccer at Bama) and i were wondering how a FG kicker could put english on a football like that...then at halftime we saw that the wind was blowing so hard that it was blowing all the papers off the commentator tables and blowing stuff all around the stadium.

never seen the wind affect a kick like that.
 

78Alum

All-American
Aug 1, 2007
2,676
725
162
67
Alabaster, AL
I think Bulovas is going to be fine. I am most worried about is Sklyer. Hopefully, he will get rid of that hitch and will start hitting some better punts. But then, I hope we don't give him many opportunities in the game... :)
 

danb

All-SEC
Dec 4, 2011
1,088
6
0
Hazel Green, AL
I lol’d when a coworker sent that to me Wednesday! While funny, it is definitely a touchy subject right now and I hope we have found the answer in Bulovas, and he continues to improve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

PA Tide Fan

All-American
Dec 11, 2014
4,442
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Lancaster, PA
In the Saban era at Bama I only recall 2 losses that were due to poor FG kicking, the 9-6 loss to LSU in 2011 and the "Kick Six" game and they were both lost by the same kicker so perhaps that's why that position is not a high priority and we have had mediocre kickers. If we'd had a bunch of "Wide Right" and "Wide Left" games like FSU had years ago then things might be different.
 

RammerJammer14

Hall of Fame
Aug 18, 2007
14,567
6,574
187
UA
In the Saban era at Bama I only recall 2 losses that were due to poor FG kicking, the 9-6 loss to LSU in 2011 and the "Kick Six" game and they were both lost by the same kicker so perhaps that's why that position is not a high priority and we have had mediocre kickers. If we'd had a bunch of "Wide Right" and "Wide Left" games like FSU had years ago then things might be different.
Those are the only 2 games where the game ENDED due to a missed kick, but it wasn’t the only two where it came into play.

Off the top of my head:

-we would have never needed 2nd and 26 to happen if Pappanastos didn’t shank his kick straight left

- 2017 AU, we had a FG blocked in the 4th that would have made a comeback more manageable

-2008 vs LSU- we missed a FG that would have won the game in regulation instead of overtime

-2014 vs LSU- same story, should have won the game in regulation with a chip shot FG but missed

Also I wouldn’t even really consider the FG kick at AU a bad kick- it was down the center but short at over 50yds.

Luckily the rest of our team is usually good enough to cover the difference. But it would be nice not to cringe everytime we go out to kick a FG, or lately an extra point!
 

PA Tide Fan

All-American
Dec 11, 2014
4,442
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Lancaster, PA
Those are the only 2 games where the game ENDED due to a missed kick, but it wasn’t the only two where it came into play.

Off the top of my head:

-we would have never needed 2nd and 26 to happen if Pappanastos didn’t shank his kick straight left

- 2017 AU, we had a FG blocked in the 4th that would have made a comeback more manageable

-2008 vs LSU- we missed a FG that would have won the game in regulation instead of overtime

-2014 vs LSU- same story, should have won the game in regulation with a chip shot FG but missed

Also I wouldn’t even really consider the FG kick at AU a bad kick- it was down the center but short at over 50yds.

Luckily the rest of our team is usually good enough to cover the difference. But it would be nice not to cringe everytime we go out to kick a FG, or lately an extra point!
In the 2013 AU game I wasn't counting the FG kick on the final play. We missed 2 FG's earlier in the game and then had another one blocked with about 3 minutes to go. If we convert those opportunities then the Kick Six play doesn't matter.
 

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