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 Tide’s kicker, Conor Talty, decided to stay put instead of jumping elsewhere, despite the arrival of FCS’s 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 he’s all for it.

“When you bring in someone else, it’s open competition,” Kalen DeBoer declared of the competition between Conor Talty and Marshall-transfer Lorcan Quinn. “It’s pretty obvious to Conor that’s the case. What I love about Conor is that he didn’t shy away from it. He decided to stay here. He knew he could have had plenty of time to leave if he wanted to.”

“[Connor] wanted to. He wanted to stay here. He’s got it in him. Just continue to battle, and you know, like that competition there, and I like we’re going to be good. I know we’re gonna be good, no matter who it is and whoever wins out because both of them have a pretty high ceiling,” DeBoer further added.

DeBoer isn’t 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, Talty’s refusal to run away matches the exact 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, where he missed a crucial 36-yarder in a two-point loss to Oklahoma and followed it with an inexcusable 20-yard miss against Eastern Illinois. Talty missed a 36-yarder in their 2-point loss to Brent Venables’ men, then followed with a 20-yard miss against the Panthers.

This lack of a reliable leg totally messed with the team’s 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 didn’t trust the field goal unit.

Eventually, the staff had seen enough and made the move to freshman Peter Notaro. While Notaro didn’t 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 11–4, and while you can’t blame every loss on one guy obviously, those missed points and the weird play-calling shifts definitely played a big part in the team’s struggles.

Out of all the head coaches in Power 4, Kalen DeBoer knows very well that it isn’t 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.

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, he’s 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.

How’s the competition going between the two kickers?

Right now, DeBoer says there’s no leader yet because both guys are going toe-to-toe and have such a “high ceiling.” The staff is charting every “routine” kick to see who is the most consistent from inside 40 yards out of these two. Quinn’s experience and his ability to kick the pigskin are second to none in that Bama kicker room, but Talty’s 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 “one or two plays” that cost the team points last season.

By forcing Talty and Quinn to look over their shoulders every day, the coaches are simulating the pressure of a Saturday in Tuscaloosa. It’s basically an “iron sharpens iron” 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!