re: Who is going to kick FGs this year?

I'm not a fan of rolling a kicker out there for 45+ yard FGs unless the game is on the line or they are proven solid kickers. I'm not an expert, but I feel like it hurts the confidence of a kicker going forward and can cause a swing in momentum.

Still trying to figure out how we lost out on both Carlson brothers. At the very least, we should've gone after the younger brother. Amazing the luck we have with kickers compared to Auburn, who produces cyborgs.

Is Jeremy Shelley the GOAT Bama kicker?

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Is Jeremy Shelley the GOAT Bama kicker?

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In the post-Bryant era, it would be either Jeremy Shelley or Leigh Tiffin. I'd probably go with Tiffin. Shelly had a fantastic percentage, but everyone knew he was range-limited. Tiffin's percentage was still really good, he had twice as many attempts as Shelley, and he didn't have the range limitation.

Here are all of Bama's kicker's since Bryant (minimum of 10 career attempts).

Adam Griffith 57-82 69.5%
Cade Foster 25-44 56.8%
Jeremy Shelley 44-55 80%
Leigh Tiffin 83-111 74.8%
Jamie Christensen 29-42 69%
Brian Bostick 38-52 73.1%
Kyle Robinson 6-10 60%
Michael Zifle 7-12 58%
Neil Thomas 23-34 70.6%
Ryan Pflugner 15-24 62.5%
JD Phillips 10-18 55.6%
Brian Cunningham 20-32 62.5%
Michael Proctor 65-91 71.4%
Hamp Greene 6-10 60%
Matt Wethington 7-12 58%
Phillip Doyle 78-105 74.3%
Van Tiffin 59-88 67%

I was going to include PATs, but all except Ryan Pflugner (26-31 83.9%) and Brian Cunningham (33-38 86.9%) had success rates of 92% or higher so outside those guys PATs have been virtually automatic.

To my point about how a single game can define a player's entire career, take a look at Van Tiffin's numbers. In terms of kickers with more than 30 attempts the only ones worse than Van Tiffin are Cade Foster and Brian Cunningham.

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I remember him well and this quote is a perfect example of how over time one single play can forever alter our memory of a player. Van Tiffin was anything but automatic. He was a career 67% kicker - worse than Adam Griffith's 69.5%. The year he made the kick to beat Auburn, he was 17 for 26 - a cool 65%. The only year he was anywhere close to automatic was his senior year when he went 13 for 17 (76.5%) but then Griff was 75% as a senior too.

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After his freshman season meltdowns Tiffin was really good. His senior year he was money.

2009
20-29 yards : 14/14 (100%)
30-39 yards : 10/12 (83%)
40-49 yards : 5/7 (71%)
50+ yards : 1/2 (50%)

24/26 (92%) from inside 40 yards. 29/33 (88%) from inside 50 yards.

From 2007-2009 (Soph-Senior) Tiffin was 55/64 from inside 40 yards (86%) and 33/35 from inside 30 yards (94%). I will take that all day every day.

You're right, Van Tiffin didn't have the most spectacular numbers. But what he did have was poise. When the kick was one to win the game and it was late in the 4th, Van seldom missed. And you felt good about him going out there. I never doubted he was going to make it. He didn't make them all, but he made most of them. That's a confidence I haven't had in any kicker we've had under Saban. It's been nerve wracking to say the least.

Philip Doyle was my favorite PK. That was when my old man had season tickets for us. If it was within 40 yards it was damn near automatic.

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Ziifle is a name that I never thought I'd see again on a football board.

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The only FG I can remember him making was a 45 yarder at Oklahoma in 2002. He missed some chip shots in that game too.