There was Van Tiffin, of course.
There was Philip Doyle, shooting down Tennessee in Knoxville in 1990 in one of the great upsets in the SEC’s most historic rivalry.
There was Jamie “Money” Christensen in 2005, enjoying the best season by a knuckleballer since Wilbur Wood. There were the Davis Brothers, and Michael Proctor, Leigh Tiffin and Peter Kim. There have been recruited kickers and self-made kickers and alternating kickers.
Not one of them, as good as many of them were, had it easy. I saw Leigh Tiffin berated by fans in Fayetteville once, just as his father, Van, had been booed by Alabama fans in Baton Rouge a generation before, a memory that subsequent events have washed from many minds.