The countdown is on, as the annual A-Day game for Alabama Football is only 10 days away. At the spring game, Alabama fans will have the opportunity to see the new-look Crimson Tide for the first time. Early enrollees and transfer additions from the class of 2023 will be exciting to watch, but Bama returns several key players as well.
One of those key returnees is the no. 10 best player for Alabama Football in 2023, kicker Will Reichard.
Will Reichard, a graduate student, has already established himself as one of the best kickers in Alabama Football history and has an opportunity to cement his legacy in 2023.
Reichard missed several games with an injury during his freshman season and went just 4-7 on field goal attempts. Many Alabama fans feared that the program’s long-time kicking woes would continue, but Reichard went on to solidify the position in the subsequent years.
As a sophomore in 2020, Will Reichard had a perfect season in helping lead the Crimson Tide to an undefeated national championship. He went 14-14 on field goals and 84-84 on extra points and was named a Lou Groza Award finalist, somehow not winning the award.
In his junior season in 2021, Reichard took a step back from perfection. Still, he was able to maintain consistency in his performance, going 22-28 on field goal attempts for the year. While the Alabama offense and defense alternated struggling in different games, the kicker provided some stability on special teams.
As a senior, Will Reichard was part of an Alabama Football team that entered the season with sky-high expectations and ultimately underachieved. Reichard was a very efficient 22-26 for the year, but it was unfortunate that one of his most memorable moments of the season was a missed kick in the waning moments of the loss to Tennessee.
Perhaps this loss (and Alabama’s failure to make the playoffs) partially fueled Reichard’s somewhat surprising decision to return for another year.
Will Reichard is already one of the most decorated players in school history, and is the all-time leading scorer for Alabama Football with 426 total points. It will benefit Alabama greatly to have him back in 2023, and it will be interesting to see how he finishes his career.