quote:
Not to dis Van Tiffin's kick...

But kickers were still using kicking tees back then. A 52 yarder wasn't THAT big a deal.

All the longest field goals in NCAA history come from the kicking tee/missed field goals come back to the 20 yard line era.

Tiffin kicked with a tee but they had changed the rule to the missed field goal goes to the LOS. So by then we only got the long attempts at the end of halves. Which is probably why you got the impression that a 52 yarder was unusual. Because under the "new rule" it was.

But in the late '70s dudes were routinely kicking 50+ field goals so often that they had to change the rule.

It was one of the greatest games in BAMA /Barner folklore. The game had the big names, with Bo Jackson, Brent Fullwood, and Tommy Agee, and BAMA with Mike Shula, Bobby Humphrey, Albert Bell, and Gene Jelks. No timeouts left and less than a minute to travel the length of the field in what was already a crazy game of back and forth. BAMA barely got out of bounds a few times going down the field. Mike Shula had a gift about late comebacks. (See Georgia game.) Yeah, Van Tiffin was all that and more in his time at the Capstone.

Still, 2nd and 26 was stunning. It meant so much. The Blitz and the screen in 2012 in Baton Rouge because it broke so many hearts. But 4th and 31 is going to eventually get there as well. Never have so many gone from a victory parade to a funeral procession at the speed of light. And it all happened as the barner had the 10th anniversary of the Kick.