Rodrigo Blankenship arrived at Georgia in 2015 under the radar, walking on as a kicker in Mark Richt’s 15th and final season as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
He quickly developed a following as a redshirt freshman in 2016, making a game-winning kick at Kentucky as time expired and keeping his helmet on during the ensuing interview with the SEC Network. The 6-foot-1, 191-pounder from the Atlanta suburb of Marietta has managed to be more amazing each season, having yet to miss an extra point during his career and having blasted 82 kickoffs last season for touchbacks.
As he enters his fifth year at Georgia and his fourth as the starting kicker for Kirby Smart, an older and wiser Blankenship hopes to make his final college season his best.
“The younger you are, even going back to high school, you think you can kick forever and that you can kick 60 or 70 balls in a practice,” Blankenship said during a recent news conference. “It’s not the way to make sure your body is as healthy as can be during the season. I’m going to be as smart as I can be in order to stay as fresh as possible so we can have a nice long season.”
Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship kicks off against Tennessee during the SEC East rivals’ September 2018 meeting in Athens, Ga.Georgia held a closed practice Saturday and will have Sunday off before resuming Monday with game-week preparations for next Saturday night’s opener at Vanderbilt.
Blankenship will head to Nashville with 154 career extra points and having made 53 of 64 field-goal attempts for an 82.8% clip. He set a single-season program record with 67 touchbacks in 2017 before surpassing that with relative ease last year.
To become the leading scorer in Georgia history, Blankenship needs 100 points to surpass the 412 tallied by Blair Walsh from 2008 to ’11. He already has the program record for consecutive extra points and has the highest career accuracy rate for field goals, but there is always his quest to improve.
Earlier this summer, Blankenship studied former Georgia Tech kicker Harrison Butker, whose 53-yard field goal as time expired in regulation led to the Yellow Jackets upsetting Georgia in overtime in 2014 at Sanford Stadium. Butker has made 62 of his past 69 field-goal attempts with the Kansas City Chiefs.
“I’ve known Harrison for a few years,” Blankenship said, “so I thought he would be a really good guy to look into as far as studying his game and seeing if there was anything in his technique that I could apply. I saw an Instagram of him a few days ago working out with his kicking coach, and he hit a 90-yard kickoff.
“Doing that would be pretty cool.”
Blankenship had one of the quicker flirtations with entering the NFL draft pool after last season before deciding to return, and now he is on the doorstep of his final go-around with the Bulldogs.
“I don’t know if it’s hit me quite yet,” Blankenship said. “I’m going to try and enjoy it the best I can.”
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.