Alabama punter Adam GriffithMidway through the first quarter of last week’s Alabama-West Virginia game in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic, redshirt sophomore kicker Adam Griffith accounted for the first points of the Crimson Tide’s season with a 47-yard field goal.
It was Griffith’s first field goal in the Georgia Dome since his 32-yarder catapulted Calhoun High School to a 27-24 overtime triumph over nemesis Buford for the 2011 Georgia Class AA state championship, and he insists the one three years ago was a breeze by comparison. Calhoun had not won a state crown since 1952, and Buford had rallied from a 24-10 deficit in the final 90 seconds of regulation, but he said he felt fine about that moment.
“I had started all four years in high school, so I was more comfortable then and didn’t have the nerves,” Griffith said this week by phone. “This is my first year starting [as a collegian], and I was nervous all last week leading up to the game. When I first lined up and took my steps back, my legs were shaking, and I just told myself to watch the ball. Once I kicked it, I didn’t feel the nerves anymore. I knew I was going to make the next one, and if I had to kick another one, I knew I would make that, too.
“That first one is always the hardest, and I had no idea I could get that nervous before a game. Plus, this kick was a lot farther.”
Griffith wound up making 47-, 41-, 27- and 45-yard field goals in his starting debut, propelling Alabama to a 33-23 victory. He was the only kicker nationally to make three field goals of longer than 40 yards last weekend, and he’s the first to make three such kicks in a game for the Crimson Tide since Michael Proctor in 1993.