Kalen DeBoer: Kicker Conor Talty Made 55-Yard Field Goal in Practice This Week

Originally posted on Alabama Crimson Tide on SI
By Will Miller | Last updated Aug 27, 2025 2:43 PM ET

The progress of redshirt sophomore kicker Conor Talty is a focal point of Alabama's 2025 special teams unit, and on Wednesday, head coach Kalen DeBoer shared an update about how Talty has rebounded from a tough scrimmage showing earlier this month.

"Conor's done a nice job," DeBoer said during the SEC coaches' weekly teleconference. "Had a little lull probably from first scrimmage to the second scrimmage there, maybe a little bit into that next week... It's understanding how to get yourself out of the slump that you're in a little bit. We expect a lot out of him."

Talty's strength and range has not been an issue. Despite this fall being his first season with duties as the primary placekicker, he was the kickoff specialist last year, along with trying three extra points and converting them all. His first game as the new kicker will be this Saturday at Florida State.

"He was kicking, and is kicking right now, at a very high level again... Conor's leg is great. I mean, he kicked a 55-yarder in [a] two-minute drill the other day and nailed it, right down the middle," DeBoer said.

The Crimson Tide coach spoke to media members during a press conference after the team's second scrimmage of fall camp on August 16. He said that Talty had been doing fine in the practice facility (the two camp scrimmages were at Bryant-Denny Stadium) but had multiple misses in that scrimmage.

"From a field goal standpoint, the ones further out. Probably 40, 38 to 44, somewhere in there," DeBoer said. "I was disappointed that he didn't hit them all because he's done a nice job in our practices, and we've been working that every day with him being new and that whole unit being new."

Talty has the tough task of replacing two very good kickers who came before him. Alabama's kicking game was a major inconsistency and flaw before the arrival of Will Reichard, who became the all-time NCAA scoring leader in 2023, and former Lou Groza Award winner Graham Nicholson, who spent a season in Tuscaloosa last year after winning the award at Miami (Ohio).

""No kicker in my position can possibly ask for anything better," Talty said this month during the team's media day. "Just seeing their different mentalities, how they approached their day-to-days. Just being friends with them, too. I take all that in. It all helps. And I add it to my own day-to-day, my own standard."