Why Alabama football's newest kicker is the smartest portal move DeBoer could make | Goodbread
Quick, no googling: How many Alabama football games over the past two years were decided by less than a touchdown?
Before you answer, a quick explanation of why the question is posed. The Crimson Tide has said goodbye to an incredibly consistent kicker in Will Reichard, who banged home 84 out of 100 career field goals over five seasons to become the NCAA's all-time leading scorer with 547 points. There was even a perfect season in there — 14 for 14 — for UA's last national championship team during the Covid season of 2020.
Suffice it to say, Reichard was money. And in what might be the shrewdest offseason move new Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer will make ahead of his first campaign, he's found some kicking money of his own.
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Miami of Ohio kicker Graham Nicholson has picked Alabama for his transfer portal destination, and will come to UA this fall with one season of NCAA eligibility remaining. His career accuracy on field goals is actually a whisker better than Reichard's (60 of 71, 84.5%).
If his name sounds familiar, perhaps it should.
When last his name was heard around Alabama Nation, it came with some four-letter words, as UA fans were incredulous, if not outraged, that Reichard didn't win the Lou Groza Award as the nation's top kicker. Nicholson, after making 27 of 28 field goals last year for the RedHawks, beat him out. Reichard was a finalist for the honor twice, in 2020 and 2023. So what does the addition of Nicholson mean for Alabama?
To understand that, let's get back to the question about close games. Over his last two seasons, retired coach Nick Saban paced the sidelines for 27 games, and nine of them — a full one-third — were decided by less than a touchdown. Six were won by a field goal or less. That should be expected at a lot of schools, but at Alabama, where losses under Saban were rare and seismic events, it's too many for comfort. Last year, if just one of those close games that swung Alabama's way had instead been lost, Alabama might not have reached the SEC title game and certainly wouldn't have reached the College Football Playoff.
And therein lies the value of a quality kicker, who can go largely unnoticed in high-stakes games until he's asked to split the uprights from 48 yards in the final seconds of a tie game.
DeBoer's first season won't be different than any other in this respect: it'll be judged first and foremost by the win-loss column. And with the likes of Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, Oklahoma and Auburn comprising half the schedule, there's every reason to expect Alabama will again find itself in its share of clashes that come down to the final minutes.
If not a final kick.
Securing Nicholson could easily mean securing an extra win or two. It could mean the difference between reaching the SEC title game, or the College Football Playoff's new 12-team field, and not. And as Alabama fans learned both during Reichard's career, and in the prior years when UA kickers struggled, that's the only difference that matters.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama football's new kicker could be DeBoer's smartest portal move
