Alabama looking to solidify the three specialists roles ahead of a tough road matchup against Florida State
Alabama is still attempting to replace all three of its specialists from a season ago, and with Florida State looming, that’s no easy task.
Alabama is attempting to replace its starting punter, kicker and long snapper from a season ago. That’s significant turnover as far as your specialists, especially when all three players were seasoned, established players in James Burnip, Graham Nicholson and Kneeland Hibbett.
With Florida State now just a week away, the Crimson Tide are looking to get all three positions solidified. We know it’s going to be a hostile environment down in Tallahassee, and special teams is an underrated element as far as giving yourself a competitive advantage.
At this point, we kn0w Cal transfer David Bird has all but locked up being Hibbett’s replacement at long snapper. He was the starter in each of his first two seasons with the Golden Bears. But what about the other two positions, punter and kicker? Well, it seems like Division II transfer Blake Doud is in a really good place right now.
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer brought him up immediately when asked about the specialists.
“Really, since the first scrimmage, Blake’s had a really good week and a half,” DeBoer said. “He’s really to the point where he was at statistically and kind of what we thought he would be before he transferred. And so he transfers here, and I think spring, kind of feeling it out, gets in our weight program, and we push our specialists in the weight program. And sometimes that forces you to go down before you go up. And he’s definitely on an upward trajectory.
“So the first scrimmage, I was impressed getting in the stadium. I’m like, OK, can he sustain this? And he certainly has, statistically, and you can even see it visually. Just if you’re out there watching, you can see the improvement that’s happened over the last two weeks.”
Doud transferred in from the Colorado School of Mines, and in 2024, he averaged an impressive 46.6 yards per punt. Obviously, the pressure will be greater playing in the SEC, but if he has continued being that effective in practice, that’s certainly encouraging as Alabama looks to replace Burnip, who finished last season ranked No. 11 nationally while averaging 45.37 yards per punt.
OK, then what about kicker? That’s a little less certain with some of Conor Talty’s up and downs trying to replace Nicholson, but DeBoer seemed encouraged about how he performed in recent days.
“Yesterday was his best day, probably in a week and a half,” DeBoer said of Talty. “And again, here in the practice field, he’s done a nice job. So we got to make sure that just translates over to our own stadium. And we’ll keep working on that. But he had a really good day yesterday. Got back to where I feel like he was hitting it and it was going where he wanted and had a good distance.
“We challenged him with a distance kick that we actually probably thought he wouldn’t make the uprights, and he was halfway up the uprights on it. So did a nice job there.”
Alabama fans still need to see it before any concerns are alleviated, but at least the third-year kicker is moving in the right direction. He’ll obviously face a tough task going into Tallahassee for his first opportunity to knock down important kicks, but at least he’s already been handling kickoff duties for the Crimson Tide.
