With Help From Late Father, Will Reichard inches Closer to College Scoring Record
Will Reichard couldn’t escape it. Every time the Alabama senior kicker came off the field after scoring an extra point or field goal, he was reminded by his teammates how much closer he is to reaching a college record.
Honestly, it is a significant record—the all-time scoring leader in college football.
“I heard it a lot today,” said Reichard, who booted a whopping nine extra points and hit a 50-yard field goal in the Crimson Tide’s 66-10 victory over Chattanooga.
The 12 points gives him 521, one behind second place (522 points, Kenneth Dixon of Louisiana Tech). Reichard needs nine points to tie for the lead (530 points by Navy’s Keenan Reynolds).
“If I break it, I break it,” Reichard said. “I won’t be too disappointed if I don’t. I just want to make every kick I can.”
Reichard’s career is filled with big moments and lots of field goals. He’s kicked 78 field goals with 287 extra points. His father never saw any of them. Gary Reichard passed away in 2016 from pancreatic cancer.
“He’d be proud," Reichard said. "This isn’t somewhere I thought about playing when he was still here. But he would have loved it for sure. He would have eaten it all up.”
When Reichard makes a kick, he points to the sky. It’s Will’s way of honoring God and his dad.
“He was my first kicking coach,” Reichard said. “I’ve had a lot of kicking coaches over the years, but he was the one always there training with me on the weekends and taking off work to take me to practice.”
Reichard was a bit concerned about not getting the opportunity to kick a field goal on Saturday. It was the senior’s last game at Bryant-Denny Stadium, and he wanted to go out in style.
The thought of telling the offense, who put up 56 points, to give him a chance was out of the question.
“I don’t want to mess with their juju like that. Let them put up as many touchdowns as they can,” Reichard said.
Of course, he did get an opportunity for a field goal, and he didn’t disappoint. He rarely does.
Reichard booted a 50-yard field goal, his school record eighth field goal of 50 or more yards in his career.
“That’s awesome. I didn’t know that,” Reichard said of the UA record. “That was fun to get a field goal in my last game here. I thought I was only going to have extra points.”
Inching closer toward the record does put Reichard in a tough spot. On one hand, teammates and fans want to see him do it, and kicking field goals instead of extra points would make it happen sooner. That also means fewer touchdowns. That’s not lost on Reichard.
“It kind of sucks as a kicker. You want to have your offense to have success and score touchdowns,” he said. “At the same time, you want to get a field goal here and there. They did a good job today.”
Reichard doesn’t like to take all the credit for his 521 career points. He insists there were others that deserve most of the credit.
“It’s not just me. There are a lot of other people that went into it—everybody that blocks for me,” Reichard said. “I’ve had four different holders since I’ve been here, a couple of different snappers. The offense does a good job of putting me in position to hit field goals. It’s a collective effort.”
