TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- JK Scott is an anomaly.

And it doesn’t take long to notice that, whether watching him at practice, before, during and after a game or in an interview setting. He just operates differently than others, and that’s why he has been a fan favorite at Alabama the last three years of his college career.

The senior punter can be seen with his helmet and shoulder pads off, making his way through a Pilates workout at midfield of the Hank Crisp Indoor Practice Facility when the rest of the team is practicing outside. The same can be said for his pregame warmup routine, which is a shortened version of a sprinter’s workout he learned from his older sister, Christi Scott.

The Denver, Colo., native can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 1:03, can hold a lengthy conversation on physics and his career average of 45.9 yards per punt ranks No. 1 all-time at Alabama.

“The thing you have to have is confidence, and I think that JK has that,” private kicking coach Chris Sailer told BamaOnLine.com. “But I think it goes a step further because nothing ever gets to him. He’s a pretty free-spirited guy. When he has a bad punt or if he happens to have a bad game, it doesn’t really affect him. He kind goes out there like it’s business as usual.”

Scott has been the poster child of consistency since his very first game in 2014. The 6-foot-6 specialist averaged 50.5 yards on two punts against West Virginia with a 62-yarder that landed on the seven-yard line on the first punt of his Crimson Tide career.

In 2016, Scott averaged 47.2 yards per punt on 64 attempts, which ranked No. 4 nationally. He forced 15 fair catches and dropped 25 punts inside the 20-yard line. Twenty-five of his 64 punts traveled more than 50 yards, including six of 60 yards or more, which was second in the nation. He has booted 84 punts inside the 20 and 74 punts of 50 yards or more in 45 games.

That’s why Scott’s nine-yard punt against Florida State to begin this year was also an anomaly.

“The biggest thing I’ve focused on and what I got away from on that one has been to take conservative angles but be aggressive with my swing,” Scott said Monday. “You know who actually said that was Jordan Spieth. My friend met Jordan Spieth and asked him for some advice playing golf. He said to take conservative angles but aggressive strokes.

“That’s been my goal and what I did was is took an aggressive angle, which I shouldn’t have.”

Scott’s three attempts against Fresno State gave the senior 198 for his career, the third most in Alabama history. Chris Mohr (1985-88) is No. 2 all-time with 203 attempts, and P.J. Fitzgerald (2006-09) is Alabama’s career leader with 238 punts. Scott’s 125 punting yards against the Bulldogs gave him 9,090 for his career, good for second all-time behind Fitzgerald.

Again a candidate for the Ray Guy Award, Scott has only punted nine times this season and is averaging 37.3 yards per kick, thanks to the nine-yard shank. But he has placed six of those kicks inside the 20, with five fair catches and a long of 53 yards.

“He’s pushing the limit, kicking it out of bounds because he can kick it 75 yards from the line of scrimmage,” Scott’s father Kim Scott told BamaOnLine.com. “And there’s very few times that they can let him just punt away where it won’t go in the end zone or go in the stands. So, he’s working on directionals, he’s working on all kinds of different punts that are problematic for the receiving team. He’s trying different punts that wobble different and do things.

“... You don’t have to be perfect. You can get it 50 yards with a hang time of 4.5, which is great. But JK’s in the 70s and he averages over a 5.5 hang time on 80 percent of his punts. He’s the anomaly, and so he’s working as a professional.”

SOCCER LEADS TO SPARE FIELD GOALS

Scott developed his pregame workout by running with his older sister, Christi, who was a five-time Colorado state champion in track and field and a sprinter at Harvard (2012-16).

Nowadays, the two will discuss the physics behind punting and how it compares to golf and baseball, with Christi, a biomedical engineering graduate, sharing her insight with JK.

The Scotts are a family full of athletes. Kim Scott was a two-time All-American pole vaulter at Wisconsin, and JK’s younger brother Charlie Scott is the starting punter at Air Force. While Christi excelled on the track, the Scott boys, naturally, succeeded at soccer.

“JK was unbelievable playing soccer,” Kim Scott said. “He was a middie, which means he tries to push people, just like punting, push the ball toward the forwards. So, he had a very large, strong leg, and so he would kick the ball, just like he punts it, way down there and the offense would run down and score a goal. It was really pretty to watch.”

Scott was on a traveling team in middle school, and time spent practicing started to pile up. In an effort to mix things up and “get away from soccer,” Kim Scott guided his middle son to the football field next to J.K. Mullen (Colo.) High School to kick field goals once every two or three weeks. That eventually led Scott to venture down his current path in athletics.

“A couple years later when he went to high school, he came up and said, ‘I don’t really want to play soccer anymore. I want to go kick and punt footballs,’” Kim Scott said. “And so that’s how it all started, because it was cross-training or getting away from soccer because he was too myopic and too involved in soccer.”

The No. 3 kicker and No. 7 prospect in Colorado in the 2014 recruiting cycle, per the 247Sports Composite, Scott earned All-Colorado honors from the Denver Post after averaging 43.8 yards per punt as a senior at Mullen in 2013. He also kicked off 44 times, with all but one resulting in a touchback, and connected on 8-of-15 field goals and 23-of-24 extra points.

ChrisSailerKicking.com rated Scott as a five-star prospect and the nation’s No. 1 overall punter.

“He was the clear-cut No. 1,” Sailer said. “We had several guys up there that were good players, but JK, with his size, flexibility, athleticism, leg strength … he was the clear-cut No. 1.

“... Obviously he started out extremely strong (at Alabama), he was impressive from the minute he walked on campus and all the way to the point where I think he was even spoken as a perhaps coming out early as a NFL punting prospect, which I think he’s worthy of. He’s met expectations and I think he’s even exceeded expectations. And as he finishes up his career, I think he’ll be an NFL draft pick.”

SABAN: ‘JK IS A TIRELESS WORKER’

Overworking is something Kim Scott didn’t want his son to do during his brief soccer career, and now that JK is more than 1,300 miles away from home, it was important that his college coach understood his new punter is both mature enough to handle his own workouts but also needs to be reined in when he does too much. That message was well-received in Tuscaloosa.

“If a guy believes in his routine, if he believes in the things that he does throughout the course of the week that are going to help him, psychologically and physically, be able to deliver the five or six times that he has to on Saturday, then we’re very supportive of a guy doing that,” Nick Saban said Wednesday.

“JK is a tireless worker. It’s really important to him to do well. If we have any issue with him in terms of his routine, it’s making sure that he doesn’t do too much and that he stays in his routine and can maintain a level of consistency because of it.”



Cross-training, once again, has been the answer to that issue, as Scott will do a variety of physical activities. Whether it’s swimming or running in the pool, hurdle drills or sprint workouts, Pilates or something else, he finds ways to not overwork his kicking leg.

“I always sit down before the season and plan out each week, and there are days where I don’t even kick,” Scott said. “There are days I’ll go inside and lift. Pretty much every day there is something I am doing inside, whether it’s Pilates or lift or some type of running, but like cross-training. So you have a lot of opportunities to train and do what you need to do for your body because you have some time to practice.”

In the springtime, Scott typically kicked 60-80 balls three times a week, his father said. But that numbered shrunk once the season inched closer in order for Scott to stay fresh for 2017.

“It’s a complete package… I think understanding your body is a big part of becoming a top college punter and hopefully a professional. I think you always have a goal of being the best. He was at the high school level, he carried it on into college and he’s not going to stop there. That’s where his planning comes from is that he wants to not only be an NFL punter, but be the best NFL punter. And the tools are there to do so, and he knows that.

“So, taking every step to accomplish that goal is huge. That is a big part of who he is. He’s a great athlete, he is a tremendous punter, he has the physical attributes to be able to be the best punter that’s out there, and on top of that, he does have a plan, he does take care of his body and then he does have that mental ability to not take himself that seriously all the time, as well. It’s a combination of all those things that make him successful.”

ARE LONG FIELD GOALS IN HIS FUTURE?

Scott made a 51-yard field goal in Alabama’s second scrimmage of the preseason, and Saban hinted that he could be the team’s option for a field goal attempt of more than 45 yards. But the Crimson Tide has yet to do that this season, and Scott said “there’s not a specific number” that has been discussed that will require him to change from holder to placekicker.

His preparation for the play, however, has remained the same since his freshman season.

“It really hasn’t changed,” Scott said. “The whole three years, I’ve always place-kicked and kicked off and done all that in practice, so that’s always been a part of my routine. The only thing different is there’s an opportunity now that I’ll possibly kick in a game. And then for kickoffs, I’m just kicking in games now. So, there’s not a big difference in my routine.”

Scott handled field goals at Mullen, where his long was 58 yards, according to his father. But he attempted much farther kicks than that for the Mustangs during their 2-10 season, even lining up for a 72-yard field goal try that, unfortunately, was no good.

He was 8-of-15 in 2013 and 6-of-10 as a junior in 2012.

“Anytime that they got over their own 40-yard line, they’d let him kick a field goal rather than punt,” Kim Scott said. “And it wasn’t that he was short, it would be right or left.

“... He has that brain that he can kick, he can punt and he can just interchange it mentally, no problem in his motor functions because of all the workouts he’s done,” Kim Scott said. “And so two of the last three years he’s been a backup, and you do kickoffs and you do kickoffs. I don’t have a problem with JK coming up short on anything, the accuracy is kind of the issue there.

“But he’s not going to come up short, I don’t think, unless it gets blocked.”



With Adam Griffith serving as placekicker for most of Scott’s career and walk-on Andy Pappanastos -- who Scott said strength and conditioning coach Scott Cochran refers to as “Papa Nasty” -- kicking all seven of Alabama’s field goals this season, Scott has filled the role of backup kicker all four of his years in a crimson uniform, at least up to this point.

He made 3-of-4 field goals in the A-Day Game in April, including the game-winner for the Crimson team. Scott’s lone field goal try in an actual game came in 2015 and was no good.

Whether he sees the field for a long attempt or not Saturday against Colorado State remains to be seen. But with his tireless approach off it, Scott will be prepared to give it his best shot.

“What he does have going for him is he’s a great athlete, he has a tremendous leg, he has done it in the past, he’s capable of doing it,” Sailer said. “Will he be as refined and perhaps as consistent as some of the guys that have trained daily on that position? Probably not. But is he confident enough and does he have the ability to make some kicks? Absolutely.

“Is it a perfect situation? No. I think it’s very difficult to do both skills. It’s different motion and muscle memory. But if anyone can do it, I think JK can. ... If he were to go out and miss and 60-yarder or a 55-yarder, it definitely wouldn’t be his fault.”

No. 1 Alabama (2-0) will host Colorado State (2-1) on Saturday, Sept. 16, inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. The Week 3 regular-season game will kick off at 6 p.m. CT and air on ESPN2.

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).