Okay, Nick Saban wasn’t exactly wrong. The former HC had pointed out that whenever it gets cold, things get a bit messy. Now Saban had his take on this. He mostly pointed out that the football becomes a bit uncontrollable for the running corp. Yes, the QB doesn’t face many problems, but with those sleeves on as a WR? the football is bound to slip right out. Why are we exactly bringing this out? Well, all the playoff games were on cold territory. SMU at Penn State, Indiana at Notre Dame, and finally Vols at OSU. The average temps across the boards were middle or lower than 20 degrees.

Now, fortunately, the WRs didn’t face many problems. It was rather the punting group that had to dabble with a lot of average kicks. Back on YouTube, Isaac Punts points out this exact problem. “The special teams was absolutely abysmal,” Isaac mentioned.

Let’s start with the worst-case scenario: SMU at Penn State. First of all, the Mustangs are not used to the cold. Since 2022, this is their first cold-weather game, and it wasn’t looking that good. Coming to the punting situation. Isaac Pearson logged in 5 punts with an average of 36 yards. In total, SMU snagged 182 yards off of their punting. Quite low compared to their 42-yard average in the last 5 games.

For the Lions? The situation was more or less the same. While Penn State was having the time of their lives with a home advantage and a cold weather game, their punter, Riley Thompson, still managed to snag 108 yards in total through the 3 punts. Remember, Penn State was averaging at least 150 yards in the last 5 games. So there is a sign.

Then, coming to Notre Dame and Indiana. While Curt Cignetti did get blown out by Marcus Freeman’s chaotic but perfect defense, the Hoosiers managed to bring in only 33 yards on average in the 6 punts. In previous games, James Evans was out there averaging more than 40 yards.

For the Irish? They even got one of their kicks blocked. “It went directly into the hand of a lineman who really was not close enough that he should have been able to block anything,” Isaac mentioned. The college football playoffs were wild. We will agree on that, but for now, it looks like the fans agree to switch out the football for the special teams.

Too muddy, folks

“Finally, a video showing why kickers should have their own ball for a game,” was what one of the comments mentioned under the video. Now sharing the same emotion, another comment noted, “Cold weather. The ball was rock hard.”

Both of these are valid arguments. If the football gets too muddy, it’s like trying to kick a bucket of water across the gridiron. Cold weather games do tend to be a bit annoying, but the football getting water lodged is a nightmare for any member of the special teams.

On this note, another comment said, “That’s ridiculous. The balls are so bad that they lose like 15 yards of flight. Miserable.” From the stats we saw, yeah, the NCAA probably should dive deeper into this and figure something out. A separate football for the special teams sounds perfect.