Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009

No tape, no issues for Alabama kicker

SEC’s special teams player of the week most accurate kicker in the conference

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The referee had a bit of a smile on his face when approaching Leigh Tiffin before Saturday’s game.

The Alabama kicker had a good idea what was coming next.

Following nearly a week of controversy surrounding a small piece of white tape used a week earlier, the friendly reminder to keep the adhesive on the sideline wasn’t exactly necessary. The back and forth between Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban and South Carolina coch Steve Spurrier over the small visual aid suddenly put the senior from Muscle Shoals and holder P.J. Fitzgerald in the middle of a quote war.

“Yeah, it couldn’t have come at a better time could it?” said Tiffin who has Saturday off before hosting LSU on Nov. 7. “I told P.J. ‘Yeah, I hope we do well this week. If we miss one, everybody is going to blame it on the tape.’ I wasn’t worried about it. I didn’t think it would affect anything.”

Of course, Tiffin’s four field goals accounted for all 12 Alabama points for second-ranked in the two-point win over Tennessee. The Southeastern Conference rewarded his efforts Monday when it named him special teams player of the week.

The practice of using tape or some other visual aid to mark the spot of the kick is fairly common, Tiffin said, although it won’t likely be seen again in the SEC for a while. It was an idea stolen from watching other football games on television.

Fitzgerald said he’s used everything from a few blades of white-painted grass to a gum wrapper to mark the spot where he planned to place the ball for field goal or extra point attempts.

“But no more of that,” Fitzgerald said. “There’s no tape necessary.”

The big game for the kick team included line drives of 49 and 50 yards. Both cleared the crossbar with inches to spare — a reality of kicking in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Tiffin said he can’t say exactly what makes kicking in his home stadium difficult, but it likely has something to do with the crosswinds that tend to swirl.

The challenge of long-distance kicking typically rises when playing in the bigger stadiums such as Bryant-Denny and Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium.

“For whatever reason, ours is the one that I always seem to have the most trouble being able to tell,” Tiffin said. “I just feel like it changes a lot.”

The four successful kicks in as many tries Saturday helped keep Tiffin as the most accurate field goal kicker in the conference. He’s now made 87 percent (20-of-23) in a season that included a few lapses against North Texas when he missed two extra points.