All too often, kickers get overlooked. That had been the case for quite some time for Nick Saban and Alabama football. But when Will Reichard came aboard in 2019, the Alabama Crimson Tide finally got a quality player at a tricky position. And he wound up being more than a quality player—Reichard, a fifth-year senior, will leave Alabama as arguably the best kicker in collegiate history.
He certainly has the numbers to back that up. Reichard has 547 career points, the most in NCAA history. He made his only two field-goal tries on Monday in Alabama’s 27-20 overtime loss to Michigan, a 50-yarder at the end of the first half and a 52-yarder in the fourth quarter to put the Tide up by a touchdown. He made both of his extra-point tries.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Reichard said on Monday after the game. “This group of guys, I’ve been here for five years, this is probably the most together we’ve been as a team since I’ve been here. So when it’s that way, you want to win for your teammates as much as you want to win for yourself. So it’s really tough I won’t be able to be on this team with this my last game and all. Super proud of the way we fought all season and super proud of all of our guys even though we lost.”
Nick Saban Found a Top Kicker in Will Reichard
From the beginning of his tenure, both Nick Saban and Alabama football fans took to Reichard, the top kicking recruit of his class. He grew up in Hoover, Alabama, less than an hour from the campus in Tuscaloosa, and was well-versed in the struggles the Tide had in the kicking game during Saban’s tenure. When he made his commitment to the school in 2018, he made no bones about the fact that it would be easy for him to clear the low bar set by previous Tide kickers.
“I’m really excited to do it, because, I mean, a lot of the Bama fans haven’t been happy with the way their kickers have been performing,” Will Reichard said at the time, per the Montgomery Advertiser. “So, if I go in and just do what I normally do, they’ll be really pleased.
“I mean, it’s better than going into some place that’s had really good kickers, because you have to feel like you’ve got to live up to (that standard). But for me, there’s no pressure because (the fans) feel like they haven’t had a good one. So, I’ll just go in and do my thing.”
Alabama Football Will Miss its Record-Setting Kicker
And he did just that. In his five seasons with Alabama football, Reichard made 84 of his 100 field-goal attempts, and was 295-for-297 on extra-point tries. He made all 20 of his chip-shot field-goal tries (29 yards or fewer) and was 29-for-32 on tries of 30-39 yards. He was 10-for-13 on kicks of 50 yards or more in his career, including 5-for-5 this season.
“Will has been a consistent performer for us for several years now,” Saban once said of Reichard. “I’ve never been around a guy who had a perfect season. He actually had a perfect season as a kicker.”
And just as Reichard will miss Alabama football, Alabama football will miss him.
As Jimmy Stein, host of the Locked on Bama podcast, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday: “How good was Will Reichard yesterday? He’s the best I’ve ever seen at Alabama.”
How good was Will Reichard yesterday? He’s the best I’ve ever seen at Alabama.
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Alabama Football: Nick Saban Favorite to Depart After ‘Heartbreaking’ Loss