So, how are the kickers looking?
That, as is common knowledge, can be a tricky one following the final scrimmage of an Alabama preseason. Nick Saban, however, sounded upbeat on the kicking situation coming out of Saturday’s action in Bryant-Denny Stadium, two weeks before the season opener at Missouri.
“The specialists have done really, really well,” he said.
The focus is on sophomore Will Reichard returning from an injury-shortened freshman season. Reichard was 4-for-5 kicking Saturday, Saban said, with the only miss coming from the 55-yard range.
“He’s been doing really well from a kicking standpoint,” Saban said, “so a lot of things to work on, a lot of things to improve but certainly not at all disappointed in the progress that we’ve made to this point.”
Become an Alabama Insider: Sign up here for $4.99 a month to text, learn inside information from AL.com beat writers.
Reichard played in five games as a rookie, making 4 of his 7 field goal attempts and 21 of 22 PATs. He suffered a hip flexor injury in the Southern Miss game and reaggravated it on a punt against Tennessee. The Hoover High grad’s highlight game came against New Mexico State when connecting on field goals of 48 and 49 yards.
Saban went on to say there was still a lot of competition at the kicking position. Joseph Bulovas is back for his redshirt junior season after handling the kicking duties when Reichard went down. He was 8-for-11 kicking field goals and 59-for-61 on extra points in 2019.
Saban said Bulovas “has a lot of experience and he’s actually made improvement this fall” after Saturday’s scrimmage.
“And we have some other guys that are in the program that have done extremely well,” Saban said. “So there’s a lot of competition there and I’m not ready to single anybody out. We’re still trying to figure out who the best kicker is.”
Saban previously said there are three players competing for the starting punting job with part-time starter Ty Perine back.
He’s joined by grad transfer Charlie Scott (brother of JK Scott), freshman Sam Johnson of Oak Mountain, Skyler DeLong and Jack Martin. Reichard would be an emergency punter after attempting four last year for an average of 38.0.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
"really" - Google News
September 13, 2020 at 04:55AM
https://ift.tt/3kdJ3Qg
How’s the Alabama kicking game look? Saban says it’s gone ‘really, really well.’ - AL.com
"really" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3b3YJ3H
https://ift.tt/35qAk7d
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "How’s the Alabama kicking game look? Saban says it’s gone ‘really, really well.’ - AL.com"
Post a Comment