NEW ORLEANS — Considering that both Louisiana State and Alabama failed to score a touchdown in their first meeting, the possibility that the national title game Monday will come down to a fateful, final kick looms large. During LSU’s 9-6 overtime victory in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 5, Alabama missed four kicks and LSU ended the game on a 25-yard field goal by Drew Alleman.
If the 2011 regular season in college football is a harbinger, a game coming down to a kick will end badly for one of the kickers. Oklahoma State, Oregon and Boise State all probably missed a chance to play for the national title because of late-game misses by their kickers.
It didn’t get any better during the bowl season. Stanford, Georgia and Virginia Tech all lost after late-game or overtime misses by their kickers.
Few have watched this flurry of heartbreak with a better perspective than Boise State kicker Kyle Brotzman, who missed field-goal attempts of 26 and 29 yards in November 2010, costing Boise State its spot in the national title race. So when he saw Alabama kicker Cade Foster miss three of his four field-goal attempts during the first LSU-Alabama game, he sent an email of support to the Alabama athletic department to reach out to Foster.
“I was in that same situation,” Brotzman said. “I think it’s just someone needs someone to reach to them and help you out with some tough times.”
The key to overcoming the desolation of a miss kicked, Brotzman and other kickers and coaches said, is camaraderie and support. Brotzman texted and spoke with Boise State kicker Dan Goodale this season after Goodale’s 39-yard miss against TCU ended Boise State’s chance at an undefeated season.
Brotzman received hate mail, death threats and ultimately had to shut down his Facebook account after his miss. He said the recovery process was not easy.
“It took a couple days,” said Brotzman, who kicks for the Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League. “My family and friends helped out a whole lot. The coaching staff at Boise State rallied behind me. It helped out a whole lot, and the fans here at Boise State, they were tremendous and showed a lot of support.”
Foster shut down his Facebook page after his three misses against LSU. Joe Alleva, the LSU athletic director, came to Foster’s defense in a phone interview on Friday, recalling that the field goals were from 44, 50 and 52 yards. “That’s just not easy, OK?” Alleva said.
Alabama coach Nick Saban also defended the Tide kickers. Saban typically employs Foster on kicks of 42 yards or longer and Jeremy Shelley, who had a kick blocked against LSU, on shorter attempts. Foster is 2 for 9 on the season while Shelley is 16 for 20.
“The world breaks everyone at some point,” Foster said. “Some are strong at those points, and others are weak. If you’re strong, you’re going to persevere through it.”
Alabama’s possession leading up to Foster’s missed 52-yard field goal in overtime included a dropped pass, a sack and a 5-yard substitution penalty. Those long-forgotten mishaps reveal one of the often overlooked part of missed kicks: all the other dynamics that go into setting them up. Saban acknowledged the negative plays that led to the overtime miss and said the missed kicks from the first game would not affect the Tide’s strategy Monday.
“I think what we’ve tried to do with our guys is say, ‘Look, you had a bunch of low-percentage kicks in that game, and we are confident in your ability to just stay focused on the process of what you need to do to make your best kick,’ ” he said.
Foster drew a large crowd Friday at the national title game media day and sounded confident that he had moved past the misses. He said he had revived his Facebook account since having to shut it down after the initial missed kick and had moved on.
“It’s done,” he said. “It’s in the past. Until someone invents a time machine, I’m not going to worry about it, because I can’t do anything about it.”
The veteran kicker Jay Feely, now of the Arizona Cardinals, knows the extreme emotions that come with kicking in the NFL.
While playing for the Giants in 2005, Feely missed three kicks and ended up as a subject of a “Saturday Night Live” skit. Weeks later, he hit an overtime game-winner in Philadelphia while the replay board showed him missing the kicks against Seattle.
Feely said he had watched the spate of misses from the college kickers this season and could relate to their predicament.
“I don’t think you ever forget it,” he said. “You think more about the misses.”
Feely gives himself until Monday afternoon to think about the previous day’s game, he said, whether or not it was successful. An 11-year NFL veteran, he said that for kickers to move forward, they need to “focus on the process, not focus on the product.”
“Even though it hurts when they have a miss, it’s not career-ending and it’s not going to end your life,” Feely said. “To try to move forward, you have to not fear failure. That’s easier said than done. You can’t worry about missing and think about trying not to miss.”
The kicker who received the most attention in the bowl season was freshman Jordan Williamson of Stanford. In the Fiesta Bowl, he missed a game-winning 35-yard field goal at the end of regulation and a 43-yard attempt in overtime.
Stanford coach David Shaw said in a phone interview Friday that the support of teammates and coaches would help Williamson bounce back.
In the locker room after the loss to Oklahoma State, Stanford teammates approached Williamson one by one to offer their support, and lineman David DeCastro yelled at reporters who tried to approach Williamson for comment. Shaw said he expected Williamson, a top recruit out of Austin, Texas, to develop into one of the county’s top kickers.
“I’m not worried about this lingering for Jordan,” Shaw said. “It’s going to make him tougher and stronger. It’s something that people are going to want to keep bringing up, but I’m onto concentrating on the next game-winning kick he has for us and preparing physically and emotionally for that.”
Perhaps a lesson can be learned from one of the feel-good kicking stories of this bowl season. Michigan’s Brendan Gibbons won the Sugar Bowl with a 37-yard kick in overtime. In the postgame news conference, he cited the advice of coach Brady Hoke.
“Every time we’re struggling in kicking,” Gibbons said, “Coach always tells me to think about girls on the beach or brunette girls. That’s what I did and I made the kick.”
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