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| Leigh Tiffin (31) bounced back from a nightmarish game against Arkansas last season to win the starting kicking job at Alabama this fall. Photo: Kevin Qualls/The Anniston Star/file |
TUSCALOOSA — Every player on the Alabama football roster has been promised a clean slate under first-year head coach Nick Saban, and there might not be any Crimson Tide player who needs that more than sophomore kicker Leigh Tiffin.
Tiffin's personal meltdown during the latter stages of the Crimson Tide's 24-23 overtime loss at Arkansas last September was in many ways emblematic of an Alabama team that never quite seized on its opportunities in 2006. Then a true freshman, Tiffin had three separate chances to kick the Crimson Tide to victory on that day, but failed each time.
The way things played out was downright painful:
• Tiffin missed a 30-yard field goal with 3:06 left in regulation, which would have given Alabama a 20-17 lead.
• After Alabama's Lionel Mitchell intercepted a pass on Arkansas' first possession of overtime, Tiffin could have won the game with a 37-yard field goal. He missed wide right.
• After Alabama scored a touchdown to take a 23-17 lead in the second overtime, Tiffin missed the extra point. Arkansas followed with a touchdown of its own and made its extra point to win the game.
But for Tiffin, the worst part wasn't the missed kicks. It's that he never really got the chance to redeem himself. He lost his job to junior Jamie Christensen — who had sat out the Arkansas game with a groin injury — the following week, and attempted just one kick in a game the rest of the year.
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