The burden is on the defender not to hit the punter. If he turned around, neglected to watch where he was going and hit the punter it's running into the kicker. And no, the punter didn't keep his leg up an unreasonable length of time.
The punter has an obligation (as do all players on the field) to not trip opponents. This punter was unreasonably restricting this player from defending the return. Alabama was lucky it didn't get a flag there.
The punter was standing on one leg at the time. I'm sorry, but the notion that the punter tripped the defender who wasn't watching where he was going is utter nonsense.
Is it though?
Yes. By your own admission the defender wasn't watching where he was going. The defender ran into the kicker who was in the process of bringing his kicking leg down. By the time contact was made the kickers leg was halfway down.
I'd agree that it wasn't so egregious that a flag should have been thrown. It was a good no call.
Still think they were better than Bama and Texas. They had a bad game against Bama but definitely are a top 4 team.
