Will history from 2023 season repeat itself as Matt Rhule, Huskers search for a starting kicker?

Nebraska football has known who will be its starting quarterback since at least the first week of spring ball. We here at Inside Nebraska have been saying that for eons and, on Friday, Matt Rhule admitted as much.

“I felt all along like Dylan (Raiola) could be the starter game one,” Rhule said.

Rhule, special teams coordinator Ed Foley and the rest of the Husker staff would have absolutely had the same feeling about the starting placekicker spot around that same time, too. There would have been no reason, at the time, to have thought any differently.

Sure, sophomore-to-be Tristan Alvano had shown inconsistencies in accuracy throughout his debut season as a true freshman. Ultimately, though, it was a good-enough year to build on heading into Year 2.

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Alvano knocked in his first career attempt, then proceeded to miss three straight attempts over his next four games, including the boot that banged off the bars in Boulder.

After a bad start to the year, he rebounded with a strong middle by converting six of his next seven attempts (including four straight), including a 47-yarder at home against Northwestern and an impressive 55-yarder against Purdue in Memorial Stadium, which set the Huskers’ all-time freshman record and tied him for the second-longest field goal in program history.

Alvano had opened 1-for-4 (25 percent) over his first five games, then 7-for-9 (78 percent) over his next six, and then finished on a downer with the pivotal miss against Iowa in the finale. When the dust settled, his final number was in the middle of those two ends of the kicking spectrum: 9-for-15 for a mark of 60 percent, all the while going 100 percent (27-for-27) on extra-point attempts.

It was the definition of an up-and-down year. Some crucial misses (Iowa, Colorado) and some massive makes (Purdue, Wisconsin), most notably his bounceback against the Badgers when he missed a 42-yarder at the end of the first half but nailed a 30-yarder, trailing by three with just four seconds left, to send the game to overtime.

His performance in April’s spring game followed the same path as his 2023 season: He went wide left on two straight attempts on back-to-back drives (and one apiece for the Red team and White team) when he pulled a 32-yarder and a 43-yarder. Then, with the White team leading 22-21 (not that the score in the spring game matters at all), he nailed a 40-yarder for a 25-21 lead with under five minutes to play in the fourth quarter.

And, again, he was a true freshman kicker in college football. (Yes, even during the spring game he was still technically a true freshman.)

True freshman. Kicker. College Football.

Typically, that’s not exactly the greatest, most reliable combination. But Alvano did an above-serviceable job manning the role and showing signs of good things to come, even if there were edges to smoothen out.

All of that brings us up to date as we sit here on Aug. 24, 2024 and we don’t really know if Alvano, or at least when, Alvano will get his chance to show his growth and build upon that freshman campaign.

The former Omaha Westside star kicker had been sidelined throughout much of fall camp due to a groin injury and subsequent surgery required in the offseason. He has been back on the practice field recently and is showing progress in his attempt to get back to the field to be the Huskers’ PK1.

Will he be fully recovered and performing strong enough – and consistently enough – to ward off newcomers John Hohl and Nico Ottomanelli and re-earn the starting job?

“That’s not determined yet. It’ll probably be determined late next week, maybe even on game day,” Rhule said when asked on Friday to clarify who will be Nebraska’s starting placekicker.

Rhule, to his credit, did his best to showcase confidence in whoever the starting kicker is, offering up an anecdote about Eric Crouch recounting “stories about sitting there and sitting at breakfast waiting for Coach (Turner) Gill to tell him who was starting at quarterback that day,” Rhule said.

In Rhule’s mind, he says, there is “nothing wrong” with waiting as long as possible to let a player know he will be starting, even if it’s game day – or the day or two before the game.

In all likelihood, we are going to get an “OR” situation when we open the pamphlets to scan the depth-chart release on Monday. If Alvano is healthy enough to play, there is at least a chance that we see Alvano OR Hohl OR Ottomanelli. Likelier in that scenario, we would see Alvano OR Hohl.

If Alvano cannot go, it wouldn’t be remotely surprising to see Hohl OR Ottomanelli as the one-two listing on that sheet.

“We’re giving everyone every opportunity to show what they can do, and they’re doing a good job,” Rhule said. “I’m concerned about the kicking, make no mistake. I think I’ve been very transparent with that because we have an injury to our starter and some unproven guys. But I’d be way more concerned if we weren’t making kicks in practice, if that makes sense. So, we are making kicks. It’s just, ‘Who’s the guy that’s gonna go out and kick?’ And we believe in letting our players prove us right. So if Johnny goes out there, if Nico goes out there, we’re gonna go out there, we’re gonna put the ball down and expect him to knock it through.

“And if Tristan’s ready to go (he’ll go). I think last week, Ed (Foley) or I said he was about 90 percent. That’s true, but there’s a big difference between 90 and 100 percent in football. You gotta be 100 percent, (especially) at that position, to really open up and let it rip in Memorial Stadium with those winds that can sometimes show up.”

Let’s flash you back to Aug. 29, 2023.

Four days prior, during a Friday pre-Minnesota news conference, Rhule released his first depth chart as Husker head coach, and the starting kicker was listed as “Tristan Alvano OR Timmy Bleekrode.”

Rhule, though, let everyone know at the time that the starting kicker battle was still ongoing and that it would wage on into Game Week.

That, it did. The following Tuesday (August 29), he tabbed Alvano as the starting kicker, and two days later the Huskers opened the season in Minneapolis.

There is a possibility – a strong one – that we will see history repeat itself this August and that the starting kicker will not be determined until Game Week and not be announced until Rhule’s Thursday lightning-round presser 48 hours before kickoff against UTEP.

Who sends that opening first- or second-half kick into the mid-afternoon sky in Lincoln, that one we will be pondering for just a little bit longer.

“If Tristan is ready, and he’s the best as of next week, then great. And, if not, John has done a great job, and so has Nico,” Rhule said. “That’s a story, (but) that’s not gamesmanship. There’s nothing I gain from that. They don’t need to know who (the starting kicker is), they’re not trying to figure out who the starting kicker is, right? There’s no gamesmanship. It’s just, Tristan entered the mix late, and we’re gonna take it all the way up ‘til next week and see who the guy is.”