Nick Saban’s early years in Alabama featured some great play on special teams, with Leigh Tiffin at kicker and Javier Arenas being the best return man in the country. The 2009 season, his first championship, was largely dependent on those two guys, as well as the iconic Rocky Block to keep the season alive. Even P.J. Fitzgerald turned into a strong, steady punter in that final season.
That trio graduated after the Tide’s first championship, though, and we started seeing some cracks with shaky kicking.
On November 5th, 2011, though, something broke. In a 9-6 overtime loss to LSU, Alabama missed four field goals, sending the Tide into some sort of decade-long twilight zone of special teams misadventures.