Link: Leigh Tiffins take on the kicking situation last night.

[TheRealPokeChop]

http://www.tiffinkicking.com/2011/11/06/lessons-learned/

 

[92tide]

thanks for the article. it was some good perspective. as bad as i felt about the loss, i know it has to weigh heavy on the players, especially on those who may have made mistakes. here's hoping they can grow from the experience.

 

[Jay Bama]

Good article!

 

[RTR91]

thanks for the article. it was some good perspective. as bad as i felt about the loss, i know it has to weigh heavy on the players, especially on those who may have made mistakes. here's hoping they can grow from the experience.

As hard as it must be for the players because of their self pressure, the players that are getting comments from fans via Twitter and Facebook are the ones I feel sorry for. There are news reports that Cade closed his Facebook because of fans' comments. It's sad.

 

[92tide]

As hard as it must be for the players because of their self pressure, the players that are getting comments from fans via Twitter and Facebook are the ones I feel sorry for. There are news reports that Cade closed his Facebook because of fans' comments. It's sad.

wow. some folks really need to get a life

 

[GoBamaJags]

No reason for that. Some people should read the article and remember their worst times. They might be worse than a kicker missing a fg.

 

[Rachel_In_Red]

As hard as it must be for the players because of their self pressure, the players that are getting comments from fans via Twitter and Facebook are the ones I feel sorry for. There are news reports that Cade closed his Facebook because of fans' comments. It's sad.

That's horrible. No place for that.

 

[CrimsonTut]

I think it's a shame the way so many have piled on the kickers. How many expected them to hit 3 FGs from 47-52 yards out? I would have considered it fortunate to hit just one. I felt the negative yardage plays and penalties leading up to the attempts were what cost most...not the kicks themselves.

 

[TheTradition]

Very sad situation. I understand being frustrated, but there is no reason to personally attack a kid.

 

[BamaFlum]

No place for that. Negative plays and trying to run side line plays hurt us more that long FG tries.

 

[92tide]

No place for that. Negative plays and trying to run side line plays hurt us more that long FG tries.

i think the bigger thing to me is that someone would let a loss of a team they pull for drive them to do something that stupid.

 

[califbamafan]

We should never have put them in the position to have to make 45 to 50 yard fg's. Even Nfl kickers have problems from time to time from that range

 

[64met]

great read! Blaming our kickers for this loss is insane. It was our coaches who decided to go for these FG's instead of punting the ball and let the defense win the game. These FG attempts where IMHO a mistake.

 

[b2v4ua]

Never would I personally attack one of our guys, however during the pregame warm ups at 5:30, I watched the kickers. They were nailing them, high beautiful kicks through the up rights. There was only one I saw during the game that I said to myself that he could no make. Yes, I know that it is different under the pressure of the game, but we need to recruit better kickers. CBB always stressed special teams and always had great special teams. I think CNS needs to "focus" on our special teams more. JMO.

 

[Florida Tom]

Leigh knows what he is talking about he took a lot of heat himself & he holds the points record at Alabama. Should never have come down to a kick or for that matter a Bad call in the catch the Cade had nothing to do with.

Just remember this kid was one of the most sought after kickers in america when he was in High School & we all know he has had some nagging injuries. The coaches seemed to think he was our best shot to score when they sent him in,

 

[SimplyTide]

Not sure how anyone can claim to love the Tide and attack one of the players like this. These young men give their blood, sweat and tears to this program. They deserve our support even more after a game like this - not less - certainly not this. What a shame.

 

[Chukker Veteran]

Great points by Tiffin. He knows what he's talking about.

But the reference to Richard Nixon and his quote about overcoming adversity is beyond bizarre. So many famous people have basically said the same thing, but he settles on Nixon for his quote?

I really felt bad for both kickers. The long kicker who missed several times, and then the short kicker who was asked to kick outside his comfort range.

 

[engl6914]

I used to study aircraft accidents for the FAA in terms of the human factors (I'm a physician). An FAA instructor told me once that an aircrash is not the fault of one thing, that it's invariably the result of a sequence of events that just happen to arrive in a disastrous "just so" chain. It's not "why did the pilot do that?"--he said you have to look further back to the little things.

In this case it's not so much a place kicker's fault, but why were all the kicks so long? Forty-four yards was the shortest of the missed ones. LSU's field goals were chip shots. And it's not the coach's fault for going for field goal rather than punt; he didn't know the field goal would be missed. Maybe the punt goes into the end zone and comes out to the 20, only a 15 yard move from the 35 yard line of scrimmage where the field goal originated from. Then everyone wants to know why the mutton head coach didn't go for a field goal. Maybe the offense should have gotten the ball closer to the goal line before giving the responsibility to the kicker. And maybe the defense should have kept LSU from getting several first downs so the offense didn't have to start so far back and stall at the 35.

A football team is a complicated system, each part affecting the performance of another part.

One last observation--I was standing by the tee of a pro golf tournament when the young player, Craig Bowden, is telling the older player, Hal Sutton, his frustration at missing all these putts. What Sutton told him?--none of the putts were within 6 feet and that he, Bowden, shouldn't worry about it. 44 yards is a long field goal and not many people can do that. Or as Bobby Knight once said--"Oh, there's a lot of people who can do that; they just don't want to put their beer and hot dog down and come do it."

 

[AlistarWills]

As hard as it must be for the players because of their self pressure, the players that are getting comments from fans via Twitter and Facebook are the ones I feel sorry for. There are news reports that Cade closed his Facebook because of fans' comments. It's sad.

These people are not fans. They are the drunken lunatics that run off at the mouth all week, and after their "predictions" don't come to fruition, know what they are going to get later. They take out their anger, for what they deservedly are going to get, on what they feel is the reason it's coming. Alabama has a lot of classless "fans" these days.

 

[crimsonaudio]

The sad truth is there is a percentage of any fan base that equates their self worth with a particular sports team comprised of people they've never met playing a game.

Thankfully, it seems to be a small percentage, but with a fan base as large as Alabama's, we end up hearing about it...