Matt Rhule tabs Tristan Alvano as starting kicker, provides injury updates

Nebraska football released its official depth chart for Minnesota on Friday, but one of the Huskers' primary positions for the season opener against the Gophers had not yet been decided.

Huskers coach Matt Rhule ended that debate officially on Tuesday morning, naming true freshman Tristan Alvano as the team's starting kicker over veteran Timmy Bleekrode for Thursday night's tilt.

"Tristan Alvano will be the starting kicker in this game," Rhule said. "We’re not prepared yet to say the kickoff person. All three guys are ready to go. A lot of that will be affected by the wind and certain kicks, maybe, at different times.”

Alvano's start will come during his first-ever college football game, but Rhule says that he doesn't want to look at Alvano's youth as a factor.

“They’re all of age to go over and fight overseas. I never wanna use age as an excuse for them because I know they don’t want that," Rhule said. "Tristan Alvano's a kicker at the University of Nebraska. That means something. It’s a long lineage of elite specialists. I won’t say his age but, because he hasn’t kicked for us, I’m sure there’s gonna be some ups and downs, some highs and lows. There’s gonna be that for the whole team, you know? The whole team’s gonna have ups and downs, highs and lows. We’re trying to build a team that’s resilient, that doesn’t fold. But I’ll tell you this – if the game comes down to the end and we’ve gotta go win it, I’m gonna put Tristan out there and believe he’s gonna make it.”

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Rhule conceded the fact that the Huskers' battle at the starting kicker spot was the most competitive position battle on the team.

“Timmy’s got live kicks in college football, he’s a great teammate, and I’m hoping there’s a role for him kicking off and other things that he can maybe do," Rhule said. "We have a really strong specialists room. When you have three guys who can punt and kick off, when you have two (long) snappers that we do in Marco (Ortiz) and Camden (Witucki), I go on the road and not worry. We have two holders – (Brian) Buschini’s our (starting) holder and Elliot Brown – so we have a lot of depth, a lot of skill, and Timmy was right there until the end.”