From now until kickoff in Arlington, Texas, we'll be counting down the days before Alabama and Michigan get the season started. Today, we move to No. 43 and what it means to UA football. See all the previous editions here.

When we started the Countdown, we looked at No. 90 Jeremy Shelley. Today, we turn our attention to the Crimson Tide's second placekicker, No. 43 Cade Foster.

Foster had a shaky 2011-12 season but had a good showing this spring which could bode well heading into this season. If he can accomplish what the staff wanted (Shelley with short- to medium-range field goals and Foster with the longer attempts) the offense could score even more points than it did last year.

In three spring scrimmages, Foster was 7 for 11 on field goal attempts. His four misses were from 54, 46, 35 and 32 yards. His longest successful attempt came from 50 yards out. On A-Day he booted just one field goal, connecting on a 48-yard boot that split the uprights.

What confounds some is the drop off from his freshman to sophomore year. In 2010-11, he made 7 of 9 field goal attempts and 5 of 6 from 40-49 yards out. He averaged 65.2 yards on his kickoffs, 10 of which ended in a touchback. Fast-forward to his sophomore season that saw him connect on just 2 of 9 field goal attempts and his average yards per kickoff drop to 63.3. While the 1.9 yards per kickoff drop off doesn't seem like much, it was the difference between 10 touchbacks and five.