Resilience seems to be the hottest trend in Tuscaloosa this off-season. Even after getting tagged as statistically one of the worst (if not the worst) kickers in all the SEC last season (2025), the Alabama Crimson Tideâs kicker, Conor Talty, decided to stay put instead of jumping elsewhere, despite the arrival of FCSâs best kicker, Lorcan Quinn. Word is, according to head honcho Kalen DeBoer, this is a legit battle for the starting kicker gig between the heart and talent, and heâs all for it.
âWhen you bring in someone else, itâs open competition,â Kalen DeBoer declared of the competition between Conor Talty and Marshall-transfer Lorcan Quinn. âItâs pretty obvious to Conor thatâs the case. What I love about Conor is that he didnât shy away from it. He decided to stay here. He knew he could have had plenty of time to leave if he wanted to.â
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â[Connor] wanted to. He wanted to stay here. Heâs got it in him. Just continue to battle, and you know, like that competition there, and I like weâre going to be good. I know weâre gonna be good, no matter who it is and whoever wins out because both of them have a pretty high ceiling,â DeBoer further added.
DeBoer isnât just keeping Talty around for depth. He is actively rewarding his grit. In an era where players hit the portal at the first sign of adversity, Taltyâs refusal to run away aligns with the hard-nosed culture DeBoer is building. He earned this equal shot simply by staying in the fight.
While Kalen DeBoer praised Talty for not chickening out, we cannot sugarcoat how rough that 2025 season really was for them in the first place. After years of being spoiled by guys like legendary Will Reichard, the drop-off to sophomore Conor Talty was a harsh reality check. He came in with significant expectations, but by the time the season was in full swing, things had already gone south for him.
The drop-off was stark, as the Chicago native finished 16th out of 17 qualifying SEC kickers, hitting just 69% of his field goals. That unreliability culminated in back-to-back disastrous weeks, in which he missed a crucial 36-yarder in a two-point loss to Oklahoma and then an inexcusable 20-yard miss against Eastern Illinois. Talty missed a 36-yarder in their 2-point loss to Brent Venablesâ men, then followed with a 20-yard miss against the Panthers.
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This lack of a reliable leg totally messed with the teamâs offensive rhythm. Usually, a coach like Kalen DeBoer can play it safe, get to the 20-yard line, and bank on three points. But because the kicking was so hit-or-miss, the playbook had to change. They started going for it on fourth down way more often because they simply didnât trust the field goal unit.
Eventually, the staff had seen enough and made the move to freshman Peter Notaro. While Notaro didnât get a ton of chances to show off his range before the season wrapped up, the fact that they benched their starter mid-game tells you everything you need to know about how bad things had gotten.
Alabama finished the season 11â4, and while you canât blame every loss on one guy obviously, those missed points and the weird play-calling shifts definitely played a big part in the teamâs struggles.
Out of all the head coaches in Power 4, Kalen DeBoer knows very well that it isnât going to cut it in their highly anticipated Big 2026. Not to mention, with his job security on the line, the former Washington head coach took a flier on a 25-year-old transfer from Marshall. Fun fact: Quinn is a former Gaelic football player from Ireland. And his statistics from last season are eye-pleasing and appalling.
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The Irishman arrives with a stellar resume, having earned First Team All-Sun Belt honors by hitting over 80% of his field goals (21-of-26), including a monster 55-yarder. Beyond his accuracy, heâs a weapon on kickoffs, boasting an elite 85.9% touchback rate that consistently gives the defense a long field to work with. Regardless, DeBoer is keeping the rotation strictly 50/50 during spring ball to see who blinks first.
Howâs the competition going between the two kickers?
Right now, DeBoer says thereâs no leader yet because both guys are going toe-to-toe and have such a âhigh ceiling.â The staff is charting every âroutineâ kick to see who is the most consistent from inside 40 yards out of these two. Quinnâs experience and his ability to kick the pigskin are second to none in that Bama kicker room, but Taltyâs familiarity with the Alabama snap-and-hold operation gives him a slight chemistry advantage, at least for now.
Still, Talty deserves credit. He could have secured a starting job at most other Power 4 schools, but chose to stay and fight for his spot. At the end of the day, this competition is about fixing the âone or two playsâ that cost the team points last season.
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By forcing Talty and Quinn to look over their shoulders every day, the coaches are simulating the pressure of a Saturday in Tuscaloosa. Itâs basically an âiron sharpens ironâ scenario that ensures Alabama will have one of the most reliable kicking games in the country, regardless of who trots out for the first field goal. That said, fans are waiting for the A-Day spring game on April 11th to see which one of these big legs finally pulls ahead in the race!
