Reports: Alabama to start walk-on punter against Tennessee
Because of the struggles by P Skyler DeLong, Alabama is expected to start a walk-on punter this week at Tennessee, multiple reports indicated Thursday night.
According to Scott Theisen of 97.7 The Zone and Touchdown Alabama Magazine, walk-on Mike Bernier will start in place of DeLong. Bernier will suit up in honor of his mother, who recently died after a battle with breast cancer.
Coach Nick Saban said on his radio show that most of DeLong’s struggles are psychological, but did not indicate a change at the position.
Bernier is a native of Madison, Ala., played at Bob Jones High School, and transferred from Eastern Illinois.
DeLong is averaging 42.1 yards per punt this season, but only had one punt last week against Missouri that traveled 12 yards. He hadn’t punted the previous two games, and had six for a 36-yard average against Texas A&M.
Sources say @AlabamaFTBL will change in punters Saturday as former @BJFootball Mike Bernier will take over for Skyler Delong. Bernier left his scholarship At Eastern Illinois to come home and take care of his mom who passed away from cancer 9 weeks ago.
— Scott Theisen (@scott_theisen1) October 18, 2018
Unless he punts for minus yardage it won’t be any worse than what has been going on.
Field Goal kicking is terrible as is every year. Punting is sub-par. Kick offs are decent. Overall i think special teams suck this year lol
Bulovas is 67% on FGs for the year, and last week the only one he missed was a 50yd+ attempt. He’s also only missed one PAT this year, and that was at Arkansas after the rain and I personally think his foot slipped.
Great? No, could definitely be better. “Terrible”? Also no. And he’s doing a good job on KOs as you say.
JK Scott is a hard act to follow. Here’s hoping they aren’t too hard on themselves and continue to improve with time.
Well hopefully tn can exploit that aspect and make a game of it tomorrow ill not get my hopes up but be nice to see a good game at least
Alabama punts? Who knew?
That’s what I was thinking, the poor kid gets a start but likely still wont get into the game!
Maxim 6
Sec rules, he has to punt in flip-flops.