What gets me, and he said this in the press conference, they guarded the left side of the field. Alabama's left was Auburn's right side of the field, and then he said they knew the guy was back there so they had the left side guarded not the right. How do you not guard right when you are kicking from the left hash. That answer makes no sense because as much of an "attention to details" guy he is....one would think he would have told some of his line they needed to get their asses to the right in case there was a return. Does it not seem obvious that if you know they have a returner back there, and you are kicking from the left hash, that the returner is probably going to run to your right? What gets me about Bama fans is that the loss is all Cade Foster's fault. He didn't even kick that ball and this dude is getting death threats on his twitter page. Nick the great has duh moments too.
You're supposed to "fan out". You have 11 players covering 11 lanes sideline to sideline as soon as the kick is launched in the air. If you do it correctly, then even big lug linemen can prevent an elusive speedy specialist from getting past them. Mark May said he was shocked that Saban-coached players were "dogging" it on that play and simply gave up on it after seeing the kick end up short.
Seeing the gump reactions was highly gratifying. While I wish that they'd have lost earlier in the year (particularly to us), knowing that they had their hearts ripped out at the last possible moment in the most improbable way to their most hated rival for the division title makes me feel all warm & fuzzy inside. That's exactly how we felt last year on their miracle drive. I can only hope that this signifies the tipping point for that program. For several years now, they've been the beneficiaries of entirely too much good luck, which has been the single largest factor in their title run. Yes, they've put great teams on the field, but without a ridiculous amount of lucky breaks, they'd have probably just 1 NC in the last 4 years. Perhaps "the return" was a new dawn for the tide.
Probably didnt line up in short field goal return coverage much in practice all season. Can't imagine many teams do.
