Alabama bound: St. Rita kicker Conor Talty goes from ‘zero offers to the one that everybody in the world wanted’

On July 10, St. Rita kicker Conor Talty was sitting on the couch in the family room of his Oak Lawn home. His mother, Karen, sat to the left and his father, Noel, to the right.

An iPad was on the table in front of them.

Coleman Hutzler, the special teams coach for Alabama, was on a FaceTime call, telling Conor and his parents he was being offered a scholarship to the perennial national champion.

“That was amazing,” Talty said. “My parents both put their arms around me and hugged me. It was like a dream come true.”

A few days later, Talty was on the phone with Nick Saban, telling the legendary Alabama coach he had accepted.

Having had the time to savor the moment, Talty is now ready to get down to business with another deep, Alabama-like run for the Mustangs, who are No. 3 in the Daily Southtown’s preseason rankings.

Last season, St. Rita (11-3) finished second in the state in Class 7A.

Although the call that prompted the joyous group hug in the Talty family room was huge, an even more important call came a few weeks before, helping to set the stage.

After a St. Rita summer practice, Talty said nationally respected kicking coach Chris Sailer was on the other end of the line saying, “Nick Saban wants to see you kick in person.”

Those nine words set off a whirlwind of activity. The next day, Talty was on a practice field in Tuscaloosa, kicking for Saban.

“I put the phone down, I called my dad and we booked a flight that afternoon,” Talty said. “The next morning, we got on the flight. When I got down there, it all happened so quickly that I felt it was meant to happen.

“I went there thinking, ‘I’m supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be at my best.’ I had total confidence in myself. I never thought for a second I was going to miss a kick.”

And, he didn’t.

According to Talty, every field-goal attempt he took went straight through the middle of the uprights.

“They even backed me up to 57 yards and that kick was down the middle,” he said. “It was a perfect day.”

Talty said Saban called him into his office and told him he was impressed.

A few weeks later, Talty was in the fold.

Sailer has Talty ranked No. 2 among high school kickers in the nation. His scouting report on Talty reads “he is a great looking athlete with a live leg” and “a competitor who thrives under pressure.”

Sailer also raved about Talty’s punting.

St. Rita coach Todd Kuska is used to having star players on his team commit to big-time colleges, but he might not have predicted four years ago that Talty would be kicking for Alabama.

“He didn’t even start kicking until he got here,” Kuska said. “He played many different positions in grade school at St. Linus, but J.J. Standring saw him and said he should be kicking and punting.”

Standring, a St. Rita graduate who went on to kick at Northwestern, is a longtime special teams coach for the Mustangs.

Even this summer, Kuska would not have predicted Alabama would be Talty’s future home.

“It’s strange how kicking goes,” Kuska said. “The recruitment is funny. It’s not like with the other players. The recruiters wait until toward the end to start looking at kickers.

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“Conor went from zero offers to the one that everybody in the world wanted.”

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.

Team: St. Rita.

2021 record: 11-3.

Offensive leaders: Ethan Middleton, junior, running back; DJ Stewart, junior, running back; Nick Strelczyk, senior, offensive line; Collin Gerger, senior, offensive line.

Defensive leaders: Eddie Vrdolyak, senior, defensive line; Pat Farrell, senior, defensive line; Matt Kingsbury, senior, linebacker; Joe Kingsbury, senior, linebacker.

X-factor: Conor Talty, senior, kicker.