Alabama Names Winner of 2026 Kicker Battle

Alabama's longtime kicker battle is now over.

Yea Alabama, UA's NIL collective, announced on Sunday morning that Conor Talty will be in charge of the Crimson Tide's field goals and extra points, while Lorcan Quinn will be the kickoff specialist.

Talty was one of the top-three kickers in the class of 2023, but he had to wait his turn at Alabama. First, he sat behind Alabama record-holder Will Reichard in his final year and then former Lou Groza winner Graham Nicholson in 2024. Talty secured the starting job last season, making 16 of 23 field goals and all 48 extra point attempts.

He had a bad stretch in the last third of the regular season where he missed a field goal in three straight games, as Alabama fans booed him against Eastern Illinois. However, he finished the year with five straight makes, including three in the College Football Playoff.

"Shame on me for letting that stuff get to my head," Talty said before the Rose Bowl. "It's something that I never let that noise get to me. It kind of just hurt coming from your own fan base. I'm not going to pinpoint the missed kick in that game on that, but I will say it definitely affected my mental space. That's not an excuse — that's 100 percent on me — you can't let stuff like that get to you mentally."

Originally from Ireland, Quinn started his collegiate career at Marshall last season, where he went 21 of 26 on field goals, earning First Team All-Sun Belt Conference honors. Four of those made field goals were longer than 50 yards, with a long of 55. Quinn, who played five years of Gaelic football before moving to the United States, hit not one, but two 47-yard field goals at A-Day, providing Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer and special teams coordinator Jay Nunez with a tough decision to make over the next couple of weeks.

"I think both of them are very, very talented," DeBoer said of Talty and Quinn on Aug. 20. "And I think Conor’s really built a lot of momentum through the oﬀseason, especially since the summer.

"Lorcan, you can see what he’s got as far as leg strength, you know, whether it’s field goals, kickoﬀs, and just maturity. And so he responds and battles back. There is going to be adversity; you are not going to be perfect as a kicker. So a lot of it is like, what does it look like the next kick? You know, what’s your response going to be? And so it’s a strong competition right now. I mean, it’s a battle.

In terms of the future, Talty is a senior and will likely be out of eligibility after this season. Meanwhile, Quinn is a sophomore, and should he stay at UA in 2027, he'd very likely be the Crimson Tide's kicker for at least field goals and extra points.

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