Nebraska football will feature a 'unique' situation at kicker vs UTEP

The Nebraska football team has had a kicker competition raging since 2024 started. While the coaching staff said this week that things are clearing up a little, it doesn’t appear they’re clearing up enough.

Tristan Alvano has been a bit banged up this year. He was also more than a little inconsistent in 2023. Both of those factors have led to the Huskers having a real kicker competition as we head towards the season.

While Alvano is supposedly getting healthier, he hasn’t managed to take the job away from John Hohl. That’s led to what Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule said was a unique situation.

Nebraska football kicker position has team in a unique position

"I think we'll have a unique kind of thing," Rhule said at his most recent press conference. "John could kick some further out and Tristan would kick some in closer. We kicked today so that could still change based upon today's results. That's Ed (Foley's) decision, but I do trust the coaches to make those kinds of decisions. Ed and Josh (Martin) are charting everything, but I could see where you could see both of those guys kick and John kickoff." 

Last season, Alvano was Nebraska's primary kicker, making 9-of-15 field goals and all 27 extra point attempts. Meanwhile, Hohl was a member of the Iowa Western squad. However, he did not attempt a kick.

It’s not just the kickers that are an issue with the Huskers’ special teams. Rhule added Thursday he wants to see kickoffs with good hang time that fall at the 2-yard-line and his team running down to cover with aggression. 

All of that is quite interesting if for no other than reason that UTEP head coach Scotty Walden was positively effusive when he was talking about how much he liked the Nebraska football team’s special teams.

“This program's culture is elite. I'm talking about Nebraska,” Walden said at his Monday press conference. “Matt Rule's done a heck of a job. When they run down on kickoff, they run down and it's like 11 wild banshees running down there freaking ready to rip somebody's head off.”