Tide Tidbits - October 5, 2008

Kentucky fumbled the fumble.
"Not again," Coffee thought as he watched his third fumble in two games bounce into the waiting arms of Kentucky cornerback David Jones. But a funny thing happened on the way to a possible game-changing turnover. Kentucky fumbled the fumble.

Coffee grounds 'Cats
Alabama discovered how precarious life at the top can be, sidestepping what could have been another top-five upset with a bruising drive and a late field goal. Glen Coffee rushed for 218 yards, Leigh Tiffin kicked a 24-yard field goal with 2:12 left to put the Crimson Tide up 10, and No. 2 Alabama survived in the national title chase with a 17-14 win over Kentucky on Saturday.

Leigh Tiffin has all angles covered in Tide's win over Kentucky
As the Million Dollar Marching Band lined up right in the heart of the Bryant-Denny Stadium for its pregame performance, Alabama junior placekicker Leigh Tiffin was putting on quite a performance himself way off to the side that went by virtually unnoticed by the buzzing sellout crowd. Much like his pre-game workout, Tiffin has performed exceptionally well for the No. 2 ranked Crimson Tide, though his play has been somewhat overshadowed in the midst of the overall hype. Still, it came as a bit of a surprise when he promptly missed two fields goals -- and an extra point that he was able to re-kick following a penalty -- before finally straightening everything out in time to help preserve a 17-14 win over Kentucky.

Saban says Bama's special teams' play shows some improvement
Alabama worked hard on its kickoff coverage this week in practice and prevented last week's weakness from being this week's calamity. Kentucky led the nation in kickoff returns, averaging 38.5 yards per return, after a 100-yard return for a touchdown by Derrick Locke last week. "I thought we played better on special teams today," said Alabama coach Nick Saban. "I thought the kickoff coverage was a lot better. Obviously, our specialist (Leigh Tiffin) missed two field goals but he kicked off well, so I thought we made some improvements there."

No. 2 ranking nearly proves too much for Saban's Alabama team to handle against Kentucky
This didn't look anything like the No. 2 team in the country. In fact, there were a couple times here on Saturday when Alabama may have been mistaken for the second-best team in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Fortunately for coach Nick Saban, those moments came way too infrequently and a bit too late in order for Kentucky to really pose a serious threat to his squad. Conversely, that allowed the Crimson Tide to maintain its perfect record with a rather imperfect 17-14 win over the Wildcats.


Roll Tide!