Griffith righted the ship and is now a great placekicker... 
" He had ice water in his veins," Reggie Ragland on Griffiths' performance...
"The little man with a big number", an Alabama supporter.

    



    

Tide celebrates Adam's field goal in second half

There were a lot of players happy at the end of the Iron Bowl. My candidate for most joyous of all was Adam Griffith. He made all Tide fans proud. 5-5 in the Iron Bowls is stellar.  That alone was enough to beat the Tigers. Adam had a bad start this season. He was 0-4, and you had to wonder if would become a head case. Saban believed in him. He stuck with him and down the road he became as good a  place kicker as Alabama wanted or needed. Carlson is an excellent kicker. He had made 15 consecutive field goals and then he missed  on number 16. It was a change in momentum. Auburn never again led in the game and when his kicked was wide right and would couldn't draw even again. Adam Griffith’s journey to Alabama is well documented. He was adopted by his now American parents from an orphanage at age 13. He moved from Poland to Georgia. That must have quite a transformation.   

   

On his way home...

     He was almost placed with another family in Poland. Enter his parents who had come to Poland to find an infant to adopt. Instead they fell in love with a young man named Andrzei Debowski. The Griffiths decided to take a teenager. I’ll give them all the credit in the world. Adopting is always a stressful situation. But a teenager? These were indeed people who loved this child. Andrzei told the Polish Courts he wanted to change his name to Adam, in part because it was easy to spell. The rest is history and he has been a blessing to Alabama in so many ways. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Bama Nation pull as hard for a comeback as they did with Adam. Sure, there were who wanted him on the bench. The coach didn’t see the young man who was missing in games. He continued to see the kicker who could kick 60 yarders in practice. That face, hunch, intuition, or whatever you want to call it, has contributed to Tide success. In the second half of the season he has been invaluable.
 
     

"I can't see past the line, anyway" - Adam Griffith

  Adam not only kicked five field goals against the Tigers all his kick-offs were touchbacks, save one. That was his last. The Auburn returner had nothing to loss from near the middle of the end zone. The returned threw the dice and cost his team some valuable seconds. It wasn’t a redemption from the last time he kicked in Jordan-Hare. All he did was miss an almost impossible field goal after sitting on the bench with no chance to warm-up for the kick. I’d like to add the kick was dead center, just a little short. On Saturday he played a perfect game for kicker. It was like bowling 300 or pitching perfect game. And he did it on a slip and slide field that mysteriously changed from the last home game. He deserved to be the game MVP as much as his buddy, Derrick. Adam is just on of thousands of immigrants who come to America in search of a new future. That's one thing that makes our great country.



A final post script: Ever wonder how far Alabama fans can be found. The numbers below are for the full season in football through Sunday.

United States	180911
Russia	1819
Mexico	1533
United Kingdom	1259
Canada	1208
Germany	143
Indonesia	136
Portugal	106
France	80
Ukraine	64