Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Last season, Alabama had a one-two punch approach for field goals: Jeremy Shelly would do the short ones and Cade Foster the long ones.
That worked well on paper, but in reality, Alabama finished the year making only 19 out of 25 attempts for a dismal 76 percent accuracy mark.
That placed them in the bottom half of Division One teams. They placed 61st out of the 120 teams and it wasn’t much better, as they placed seventh out of 12 in the SEC.
Shelley was 12 of 16 for a 75 percent mark and Foster was seven of nine for a 77.8 percent score.
Stuck in the middle.
Nick Saban knows that little things matter. They lost to Auburn by one point and LSU by three—they matter a lot.
Foster was supposed to come in and be the cure all, but he was missing a few too many in his early practice attempts last year and Shelly seemed more accurate, but he didn’t have the leg for the long ones.
As the season went on, Shelly missed a lot of field goals he should have made and Foster proved more reliable even at longer distances.
Seventy-six percent is not a statistic Saban likes or will live with. He is counting on Foster to “come around” and come around soon. Shelly could just become a reliable backup.
There are many pluses to having just one field goal kicker make the attempts. It shows you have confidence in them and in the world of place kicking, mind games and confidence means everything.
Virginia Tech last year missed one attempt all of last year. Special teams are a fine tradition there. They expect to make every attempt.
Every blocker tries just a little harder to make his block because he knows if he does his job, the kicker will do his.
Alabama needs that kind of confidence: They need those points, they need those wins and if Nick Saban doesn’t get them, expect him to find another kicker that can.
According to Saban, nobody wearing a Crimson uniform should be in the bottom half of their categories.
Expect an upswing this season.
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