Will Reichard Reflects on Perfect Season, Looks Ahead to 2021
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — When it comes to college football place kickers, you couldn't have had a much better season than Will Reichard did last season.
In 2020 for the duration of his sophomore season, Reichard was a perfect 98-for-98, hitting all 84 PATs and 14 field goals in 13 games as the starting place kicker. He also took part in 69 kickoffs and averaged 52.4 yards per kick with 14 touchbacks.
On Thursday afternoon, Reichard spoke to the media for the first time. After such a successful sophomore season, there is a lot of hype surrounding him heading into his third with the Crimson Tide.
After last season's perfection, Reichard has a new challenge on his hands.
“Just keep going out every day and getting better. I told our specialists group that every day when we go out to practice ‘Find something intentional, then go out there and get better at it.’ As specialists, we’re not always hitting balls every single day but you can do something off the field, whether that’s doing hit mobility, back/core work — all sorts of stuff to get yourself better and stay healthy for the next practice.”
After the perfect season, Reichard had a not-so-stellar performance at the 2021 A-Day Game inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. In total, Reichard went 2-for-5, hitting 19-yard and 22-yard field goals but missing kicks from 33, 48 and 52 yards.
Aside from his performance in the annual spring scrimmage, Reichard had a great spring and has already put the poor performance behind him,
“I just had a bad day," Reichard said. "I didn’t get an opportunity to warm up much. I didn’t really think too much about it. I had a great spring. It was probably the only day where I had a couple of misses. All-in-all I was really proud of my spring and at the end of the day I really don’t think about that performance any more.
"It’s all in the past and I just got to keep focusing on getting better.”
Some have equated a perfect season in kicking with pitching a perfect game in baseball. Along with that comes a certain level of superstition. When a pitcher is in the process of throwing a perfect game in baseball, players and fans will refrain from mentioning it in order to not jinx the situation.
The same habit of players remaining silent on the situation evidently occurred for Reichard, but not intentionally. According to center Chris Owens, he and other players on the team didn't even realize Reichard's perfect season until after its conclusion.
“I’m not going to lie to you guys, I didn’t recognize that it was a thing until the end of the season," Owens said. "We didn’t notice any missed ones. I mean, if you asked me, my favorite one was the one against Georgia. That was my favorite. But no, I didn’t notice he hadn’t missed any field goals until the clocks hit zeros in the championship game and we got on the bus.”
In terms of moving on, Reichard is not only moving past his bad scrimmage but also past his perfect season. To him, it no longer matters and it is time to focus on how he can contribute to the program on the field in 2021.
“[The perfect season] was in my head and I knew about it but at the end of the day, you’re only as good as your next rep," Reichard said. "So you have to go out there and execute to the best of your ability and all that stuff is kind of behind me now. I’m looking forward to this season and doing what I can do every day to get better.”
