Tristan Alvano photo via Twitter
2023 Husker Signee Analysis: Tristan Alvano
Nebraska's special teams units were putrid during Scott Frost's tenure as head coach. Thanks to the work of Bill Busch and Joey Connors, those units played better this past season. While there is still progress to be made getting that phase of the game where it needs to be, steps were taken in the right direction. It's now up to new special teams coordinator Ed Foley to help Nebraska take the next step.
Last offseason, the previous staff turned to the transfer portal to add talent at the specialist positions. Brian Buschini had a very solid year. He averaged 44 yards on 68 punts, with 22 being fair caught and 14 being placed inside the 20. He dealt with a nagging ankle injury for most of the year, so I expect even more out of him in 2023. Buschini was named first-team All-American and was awarded FCS punter of the year at Montana in 2021, and he is considered an NFL prospect.
Furman transfer Timmy Bleekrode was a solid 9-of-12 on field goals and also connected on 34-of-35 extra points, with his lone miss being blocked. His season-long 46-yarder came against North Dakota, which ironically was his first made field goal of the season. Bleekrode doesn't have the leg strength that will normally inspire confidence from 45+, however.
Both Buschini and Bleekrode have two more years of eligibility, but that didn't stop Nebraska from going out and grabbing one of the best high school kickers in the country.
Omaha Westside's Tristan Alvano is regarded as one of the best kicking talents the state of Nebraska has ever produced. Despite already having two specialists on scholarship with Buschini and Bleekrode, it was wise of Nebraska to use another to lock up Alvano. At this stage of his development, he's considered further ahead than in-state kicking legends Alex Henery, Brett Maher and Greg Zuerlein.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Alvano entered high school as a soccer player with the goal of playing the sport collegiately. He'd played soccer his whole life, but people around him thought he'd be a really good placekicker and encouraged him to go out for football. He got injured his freshman year playing soccer, and it kept him out until halfway through his sophomore football season.
As a junior, despite being a relative novice at the position, Alvano went 11-of-14 on field goals, including a pair of 49-yarders in the state semifinals. He was named a second-team junior All-American by MaxPreps and earned a spot on the Omaha World-Herald All-Nebraska first-team and the Lincoln Journal Star Super-State first-team.
That notoriety shifted his priorities. Up until that point, he still dreamed of playing college soccer. That winter, following his junior season, Alvano made up his mind to fully commit to honing his craft. He says it was this past offseason when he truly fell in love with kicking.
He turned heads and drew rave reviews at every kicking camp he attended. He was a standout in January 2022 at the Kohl's Underclassman Challenge, and he nearly earned a spot in the Under Armour All-American Game after his performance at the National Invitational Scholarship Camp in July.
Alvano has also really benefited from working closely with former NU and NFL kicker Kris Brown, whose son, Kolby, was Alvano's holder last year at Westside.
All the hard work during the offseason paid off for him as a senior. Rated a five-star prospect by Kohl's Kicking and ranked the No. 6 kicker in the country, Alvano announced himself nationally in a big way, becoming one of the most heavily sought-after kickers in the 2023 class.
In October, Alvano nailed a 57-yarder during the Warriors’ first playoff game. He outdid himself in the Class A state title game, which was played at Memorial Stadium. Alvano became the first player in the history of the Nebraska state playoffs to make five field goals in a game. He went 5-of-5, hitting from distances of 50, 45, 44, 42 and 26 yards. The 45-yarder came as time expired and gave Westside a thrilling 43-41 win over Gretna.
For his efforts, Alvano was named a MaxPreps first-team All-American and once again named Omaha World-Herald All-Nebraska first-team and Lincoln Journal Star Super-State first-team.
Alvano set state all-class records for most fields goals in a game (5) and in a season (16), while his 27 career field goals were the most in Class A history. His 118 points as a senior is also the most points scored by a kicker in state history. During his career, Alvano was an amazing 119-of-120 on extra points. Showcasing incredible leg strength, 141 of his 225 career kickoffs resulted in touchbacks.
Despite the attention Alvano was gaining, if there isn’t a head coaching change at Nebraska, there isn’t a great chance that Alvano ends up in Lincoln. You have to give a lot of credit here to Mickey Joseph.
The Huskers invited him to the spring game last April and then stopped communicating with him altogether until Frost was fired. Alvano admits to feeling disrespected and had actually moved off of Nebraska and was concentrating on other schools.
That changed when Joseph took over as interim head coach. In late September into early October, Joseph rekindled the relationship and was able to get Alvano on campus for the Minnesota game Nov, 5. A preferred walk-on offer was extended the same day and the recruitment intensified.
On Nov. 22, the day after Alvano's clutch performance in the state title game, Joseph upgraded Alvano's PWO offer to a scholarship. With the future of the interim coach uncertain, however, Alvano was in a bit of a holding pattern. At the time, he was weighing additional scholarship offers from North Dakota State, Air Force and Army, along with PWO offers from Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Michigan State. The thought was he would end up a Hawkeye.
Matt Rhule was officially announced as Nebraska's new coach on Nov. 26. Naturally, Alvano wondered what that meant for him. Would the new staff honor his scholarship offer? He didn't have to wait long to find out. Assistant Director of Player Personnel Keith Williams reached out and started the communication process between Alvano, Rhule and special teams coordinator Ed Foley almost immediately.
When the contact period opened back up on Friday, Dec. 2, Foley and offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield visited Westside to check in on a number of prospects, including Alvano. Foley spoke with Alvano for about 30 minutes and went in-depth on how he would develop him. There was an instant connection between the two.
Rhule's first order of business on the recruiting trail was setting up a recruiting event for in-state players on Sunday, Dec. 4. Alvano and his family attended and were extremely impressed by Rhule and the handful of new staff members he'd already hired.
That was the beginning of a busy week. On Dec. 8, Iowa special teams coordinator LaVar Woods had a three-hour in-home visit with Alvano. The following morning, Alvano was conducting a private workout for Boston College, which offered him a scholarship on the spot. A few hours later, he was back in Lincoln to begin his official visit with the Huskers.
A few days after, on Dec. 15, Ed Foley was back at Westside visiting Alvano, reaffirming how badly the new staff wanted him to stay home and play for the hometown Huskers. Alvano ended up committing on Dec. 16 and signing with Nebraska during the early signing period. In doing so, Alvano became the Huskers’ first high school scholarship kicker since Barret Pickering in the 2018 class.
This offseason, Nebraska watched three of its reserve placekickers enter the transfer portal. Among them were kickoff specialist Brendan Franke, backup kicker Chase Contreraz and promising freshman Charlie Weinrich. The reason? Tristan Alvano. The Westside standout will come to Lincoln aiming to take Timmy Bleekrode's job. I wouldn't bet against him.
For the first time since Mike Riley's 2015 transition class, the Huskers didn't take a high school quarterback. So tomorrow, we'll start things off on offense by looking at the running back position.
Related: HuskerMax 2023 recruiting central
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