Will Reichard is a do-it-all special teams player. The Alabama true freshman can handle placekicks, kickoffs and punts, and he did all of those in the Crimson Tide’s season-opening win over Duke.

However, Alabama may take a lighter approach with Reichard’s workload to keep him fresh this season, beginning with Saturday’s game against New Mexico State.

During his weekly call-in radio show on Thursday, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban said Reichard could take a few punts off this weekend while sophomore Skyler DeLong could step in during those situations.

“The kid’s got a lot of talent, and we’ve got him doing a lot of things,” Saban said of Reichard on the show. “This week, we might take some of the punting load off of him and maybe let Skyler do it, who did it some last year, see how he responds to that.”

In Alabama’s 42-3 victory over Duke, Reichard made all six of his extra-point attempts and punted twice — one went 41 yards and the other traveled 39. However, he missed both of his field-goal attempts, which came from 49 and 48 yards out.

But Saban was overall impressed with Reichard’s all-around kicking performance.

“Will did great,” Saban said during his postgame press conference. “He kicked a lot of touchbacks, which shows his leg strength. I think he hit both field goals that he hit, he really hit well. It’s just a little unlucky that both of them hit the pole, but hopefully, he’ll be able to gain confidence and improve on that in the future.”

Perhaps having Reichard take off some punting opportunities in favor of DeLong could benefit the true freshman, and the Tide, moving forward.