We got spoiled with Tiffin's and Fitzgerald's development. Remember when they were freshmen? It wasn't pretty. And I never really had confidence in Tiffin in the clutch. Up until his senior year, it seemed he could bang 50+ when it didn't matter all that much, but struggled when we really needed it.
So I think Jay Williams' backup might not be player, but rather game strategy.
My guess is that we'll go for it on 4th down a lot more than we have in the past. Strange thing is, if you go into your playcalling strategy with that mindset, it frees you up on third down.
For instance: Suppose you're at midfield with 3rd and 6. You know that, if you're not thrown for a loss on 3rd, you're going on 4th. So 3rd and 6 is no longer so heavily weighted toward being a passing down.
Same thing with FG strategy. Especially early in the season, I don't think you'll see us putting Foster into many 40+ situations unless it's at the end of a half or the game. Whether that happens later on depends on the development of Foster's consistency and mental toughness during the year.
The caveat here is that you have the potential to put a lot of pressure on your D, so you need to be really confident in that side of the ball. And I'm on the fence about the 2010 D, especially early. On one hand, we lost a lot of experienced talent off the 2009 team. On the other, we have a ton of inexperienced talent returning. Does Saban believe they're up to the task? Only he and Kirby Smart know.
It's at an entirely different level, but there's a HS team in Texas that does this. They punt about 10 times a year or less, and they've gone really far in the state playoffs doing it. Maybe won a championship, but I'm not sure of that.
So I think Jay Williams' backup might not be player, but rather game strategy.
My guess is that we'll go for it on 4th down a lot more than we have in the past. Strange thing is, if you go into your playcalling strategy with that mindset, it frees you up on third down.
For instance: Suppose you're at midfield with 3rd and 6. You know that, if you're not thrown for a loss on 3rd, you're going on 4th. So 3rd and 6 is no longer so heavily weighted toward being a passing down.
Same thing with FG strategy. Especially early in the season, I don't think you'll see us putting Foster into many 40+ situations unless it's at the end of a half or the game. Whether that happens later on depends on the development of Foster's consistency and mental toughness during the year.
The caveat here is that you have the potential to put a lot of pressure on your D, so you need to be really confident in that side of the ball. And I'm on the fence about the 2010 D, especially early. On one hand, we lost a lot of experienced talent off the 2009 team. On the other, we have a ton of inexperienced talent returning. Does Saban believe they're up to the task? Only he and Kirby Smart know.
It's at an entirely different level, but there's a HS team in Texas that does this. They punt about 10 times a year or less, and they've gone really far in the state playoffs doing it. Maybe won a championship, but I'm not sure of that.
