Great Scott: Punter’s proficiency may have contributed to Alabama’s return miscues
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It turns out that maybe University of Alabama punter JK Scott has been too good, and not just in games.
During his press conference on Monday, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban suggested that one of the reasons why his punt returners have been making such poor decisions of late is because they haven’t been fielding any bad punts during practices.
“We have to help our players and get our players to play smarter,” he said. “We’ve had these same people in these positions before and they have not made these kinds of choices and decisions. Same coaching, same time on special teams, same everything.
“So what creates that? I’m not sure. I think we have some guys on our team that might play with too much anxiety. They need to relax and compete.”
Alabama’s return game was nothing short of atrocious during last Saturday’s 14-13 victory at Arkansas, with four fumbles and two lost in Crimson Tide territory.
Both turnovers occurred when the ball bounced after being kicked short. Senior Christion Jones tried to dive and secure his, only to miss, and sophomore Maurice Smith was pushed into the ball after he didn’t clear out after the returner gave the appropriate signal.
“That’s just a bad judgment and a bad decision,” Saban said about the Christion Jones fumble. “That’s like swinging at a ball over your head when you’re playing baseball. It’s a bad judgment. So you just have to do more batting practice. So hopefully the guy won’t make that decision, that choice. I said we have to play smarter.”
On the fumbles Alabama recovered the first occurred on a short kickoff that was fielded by safety Landon Collins, and Cyrus Jones said he misjudged the ball that went off his facemask.
Although changing that will be an obvious priority this week, Saban said outside of fielding some shorter punts the daily approach won’t be any different.
“We’ve practiced special teams the same amount we’ve always practiced them,” he said. “Last year we were first in the SEC in special teams overall. I think we just have to make a better point of emphasis with our players because the problems are judgment and decision-making. That’s something that’s hard to create.”
Scott had a career-high eight punts against Arkansas, of which seven were downed inside the 20. His 44.2-yard average also led to no return years
For the season he’s averaging 46.7 yards per attempt, ranking fourth nationally and first in the Southeastern Conference. Scott has placed 12 of his 19 punts (63.2 percent) inside the 20 while allowing just two to be returned for a total of 8 yards.
On Monday, Scott was named the Ray Guy Award’s national player of the week and the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week.
He was also listed among the Alabama coaching staff’s players of the week along with sophomore Jonathan Allen and junior Reggie Ragland on special teams. Senior fullback Jalston Fowler and junior running back T.J. Yeldon were the representatives on offense, with sophomore linebacker Ryan Anderson, junior safety Landon Collins ands senior linebacker Trey DePriest on defense.
Allen’s blocked extra-point attempt turned out to the difference on the scoreboard, although he still wasn’t exactly sure how he got the ball.
“I think with my fingertips,” he said. “I haven’t really looked at the film yet.
“It starts with great push from A’Shawn (Robinson) and allowed me to kind of squeeze my way through there and I kind of threw my hand up there and got a piece of it.”
It’s the second straight week Alabama blocked an extra point, after Robinson did so last week at Ole Miss.
“We feel it’s an effort thing,” Allen said. “The extra point is a very important part of the game, as you can see. We really focused and worked on it and I really feel it helped us out.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
