ATHENS, Ga. - Two days before Georgia's 20-19 win at Notre Dame in 2017, Bulldogs kicker Rodrigo Blankenship was summoned by the boss.
The directive to see coach Kirby Smart came from Scott Fountain, who served as a special teams analyst two years ago and is now in his second season as Georgia's special teams coordinator. Blankenship, then a redshirt sophomore walk-on, had no idea what was going on.
"I was taking a nap on Thursday before the game and got a text message from Coach Fountain that woke me up," Blankenship recalled. "The text said that Coach Smart wanted to see me before the meetings that day. At first, I was kind of freaking out a little bit, because it's like being in elementary school and your name gets called out over the speaker and you have to go to the principal's office.
"I went in, and Coach Smart took me into one of the offices and told me I was going to be put on scholarship. It was just really incredible."
Blankenship, a 6-foot-1, 191-pounder from Marietta, had earned Southeastern Conference All-Freshman honors in 2016, when he made 14 of 18 field-goal attempts and all 26 of his extra-point tries. He made a game-winning kick in a 27-24 win at Kentucky but did not have a scholarship come his way that year or in the ensuing offseason.
His father, Ken Blankenship, had been outspoken about his son deserving a scholarship, but Smart said this week that the timing of the eventual offer was not by accident.
"I thought it would be a tight ballgame and thought it might help his confidence knowing that he wasn't having the pressure of a scholarship out there kicking," Smart said. "He already had it, and he had won the job and ended up coming out and making big field goals in that game."
Blankenship's 27-yard field goal midway through the first quarter pulled Georgia into a 3-3 tie with the Fighting Irish, but it would be his 30-yard attempt with 3:34 remaining in the game that likely would determine whether Georgia's first trip to South Bend, Indiana, would be a 19-17 loss or a one-point triumph.
Missing the Kentucky kick the year before would have resulted in overtime.
There was not that same cushion at Notre Dame.
"Regardless of the situation and regardless of who we are playing or what the score is or how much time is left, I am trying to treat every kick like it's a big kick and the most important kick that I could possibly have," Blankenship said. "Given those circumstances, though, it was important to our team winning that game, and it was nice to hit that field goal in that situation."
Blankenship's two field goals at Notre Dame were part of his 20-for-23 success rate that season, and he enters Saturday night's showdown against the Irish inside Sanford Stadium having made 58 of 69 field-goal attempts in his Bulldogs career. That 84.1% accuracy rate is much more common in the NFL than in college, but Blankenship is staying focused on getting that number even higher.
"If I was looking back at all those, there are probably four or five in there that I probably should have made," Blankenship said, "and I'll just use that as motivation to be even better for this season."
His 173 consecutive extra points without a miss in his career is a Georgia record, and it's also 25 away from the SEC mark of 198 held by former Auburn and current Oakland Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson.
Blankenship already has 18 touchbacks on kickoffs this season, and the four returns by opponents have averaged just 13.5 yards.
"I think Coach Fountain and his staff do a tremendous job of keeping Rod fresh," Smart said. "He kicks certain days of the week, and he's got a really good routine that he feels comfortable with. He's been pretty consistent kicking them out of the end zone. He's been consistent making the field goals, and I think that's a big part of what Rod's game is - it's just consistency in performance.
"He's kind of the leader of that specialist group. He's got a great personality. He loves Georgia. He sells Georgia. He's a tremendous asset for us, but I love the kid as a person because of everything he's persevered and been through."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.