Gabe Boring is going places, very likely somewhere much farther down the road than McDonald’s or Hardee’s or a nearby farm somewhere close to his Pikeville home.
“He’s an amazing athlete, an amazing kicker, a student of the game – very conscientious about what he does,” praised new Bledsoe County coach Dennis Therrell, long ago a Warriors athlete himself. “He’s one of the most coachable young men I’ve been around, and he’s a huge part of our arsenal.”
Boring punts and kicks – kickoffs, field goals and extra points. A disciple of Jimmy Colquitt and James Wilhoit, the former a punter and the latter a place-kicker for the University of Tennessee, he is averaging 45.8 yards per punt this season and also has converted 100 percent of his point-after kicks and three of four field-goal attempts.
“I like doing all three, and I don’t know if I like one better than the other, but I think I’m probably a better punter,” said Boring, a slender 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds.
At Alabama during a one-day kicking camp last summer, he sent a kickoff booming from the 35. It went the 65 yards to the end zone and 20 yards beyond that – 10 yards past the back of the end zone.