Yes, I'm sure it depends on many factors, but this being a different kicker, I can only assume he thought he had the range. If I had a kid I thought could make it, that's what I'd do. Obviously Saban wanted to win so he did what he thought would do that. He was wrong. I'd have been wrong too.
Like I said -- same kid that missed a 30yd FG.
If he didn't make it from 30 in a throwaway game, what makes you think he's going to make it from 57 in crunch time? If he had any degree of consistency, the RS Frosh would've been starting over the guy that had already missed 3.
IIRC Aaron Pettrey was only ~50% from 50+ and he was clutch. Kicking from 57 had approximately 0% chance.
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