ATLANTA _ He was one of 15 University of Alabama players looking to make a mark in front of his home-state fans Saturday night, and Adam Griffith didn’t disappoint.

The product of Calhoun, Ga., located northwest of Atlanta, went 4-for-4 in field-goal attempts, including three from 40-plus yards, and was also perfect on his three extra points during the 33-23 victory over West Virginia.

Specifically, the sophomore connected from 47 yards to open the scoring in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, and subsequently 41, 27, and 45 yards.

“I was really nervous before the first kick,” Griffith said. “I felt relief that I had my parents, grandparents, and cousins supporting me and that felt great.”

Griffith played in eight games last season, making five extra points and one of three field-goal attempts.

Of course one of those was the 57-yard attempt that Auburn’s Chris Davis returned 100-plus yards for a game-winning touchdown as time expired. When he missed a 30-yard field goal and had a 47-yard attempt blocked during A-Day, Alabama’s final scrimmage of the spring, some feared a carryover effect.

So much for that.

“He kicked off really well, had a couple touchbacks,” Nick Saban said. “We’ve always had a lot of confidence in Griff. There were times last year when we thought about him being the kicker, but we’ve always had a lot of confidence in him. I think he’s got confidence. I think making four kicks tonight gives him confidence.

“When we recruited him, he was a sophomore at our camp, he was as good a kicker as we had ever had at our camp in terms of his accuracy and a combination of explosion and the ball getting up quick and all those things. It’s good to see him have this kind of success, and we’re excited about what he can do in the future.”

About the only thing that didn’t go Griffith’s way occurred during his fourth kickoff, when he got run over on the return. Mario Alford went 100 yards for the touchdown.

“Had a missed tackle on that, and I think that one of the things that affects us a little bit is we have some guys that are really good special-teams players, and when we play against these no-huddle teams we take them off of special teams because they play so many plays and they get stressed in the game a little bit,” Saban said. “So that probably hurt us a little bit there.

“But that’s something that we’ve got to get cleaned up, as well.”

Meanwhile, freshman punter JK Scott had an impressive debut when his first punt travelled 62 yards, and when West Virginia’s Jordan Thompson fielded it at his own 7-yard line Landon Collins was there to immediately drop him for a one-yard loss.

Scott’s other punt, from his own 33 late in the fourth quarter, went 39 yards, giving him an average of 50.5 yards.