Video: Alabama Player Tipped Tennessee's Winning Field Goal, Appears To Have Helped It Through The Uprights
Chase McGrath's game-winning field goal to snap Tennessee's 15-game losing streak to Alabama on Saturday was one of the oddest-looking, yet successful field goals we've ever seen. There's a reason behind its trajectory, too, as a new video appears to show that the ball was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
McGrath's kick barely snuck over the goalpost to give Tennessee the 52-49 win in Knoxville. The ball came off of the redshirt senior's foot, not like a wounded duck, but a literal dead duck. It was the knuckleball of all knuckleballs, but somehow found its way home.
Tennessee and Alabama fans certainly weren't worried about how the kick went in, but now that the cigar smoke has made its way out of Knoxville, we can actually take a slo-mo look at the field goal.
TENNESSEE MAKES STATEMENT, UT COACH SAYS ‘DOWN GOES FRAZIER’ AS ALABAMA STREAK ENDS
Cole Cubelic shared a slowed-down video of the kick, and it's clear that Alabama's Byron Young got a fingertip on the football.
Not only that, but McGrath may have pulled the kick, and Young's influence on the ball could have very well influenced the ball back on the right track to sneak through the uprights.
There's no way of knowing what might have been if Young didn't tip the kick. McGrath's kick may have very well gone in regardless, or he could have missed it to the left.
What we do know is that the football gods liked the Volunteers just a bit more than the Crimson Tide on Saturday in Knoxville.