Summer UGA football lookahead: Plenty of unknown on special teams
Georgia football head coach Kirby Smart admitted his fears with special teams shortly after finding out he didn’t have much experience on his roster.
With place-kicker Marshall Morgan and punter Collin Barber exhausting their eligibility, Georgia will now go a different route to start the 2016 season. There is a lot of unknown on special teams, specifically at the place-kicking position.
Three players, all who are walk-ons, are competing for one spot. Toward the end of spring practice, Smart said he felt better about the place-kicking position after seeing them in practice.
Even so, none of the place-kickers have seen live game action yet, which is always a concern no matter the position.
Players expected to contribute/compete: QB/P Brice Ramsey, PK William Ham, PK Rodrigo Blankenship, LS Trent Frix, WR/RS Isaiah McKenzie, WR Terry Godwin, P Marshall Long (freshman), WR Riley Ridley (freshman), PK Mitchell Wasson (freshman)
How they fared in the spring: The competition at place-kicker is wide open following the end of Morgan’s college career. This spring, Blankenship and Ham were the primary competitors, with both place-kickers having some solid moments in practice. Blankenship hit a 46-yard field goal in Georgia’s G-Day spring game, showing off his big leg.
When he wasn’t competing at quarterback, Ramsey was handling first-team punting duties. Ramsey boomed a 50-yard punt at G-Day and could be Georgia’s starting punter this season if he doesn’t win the No. 1 quarterback job.
Frix looked like the No. 1 candidate to take over at long-snapper. His brother, Ty Frix, and father, Mitch Frix, were also long-snappers at Georgia.
What to watch in August: It’ll be interesting to see how the freshmen look in their respective punting and place-kicking battles.
Special teams coordinator Shane Beamer recruited Long to Virginia Tech before taking the Georgia job. Long figures to give Ramsey a run for the starting punter job. As a high school senior at South Rowan in China Grove, North Carolina, Long averaged 46.5 yards per punt with a long of 75. He hit 18 punts inside the 20.
Wasson joins Georgia as a preferred walk-on who was previously committed to Alabama. Smart got him to flip his commitment, giving him three options to potentially go with this season. Consistency is needed at the position, as all three have big enough legs to get enough distance on their kicks.
In the return game, McKenzie and Godwin will be the front-runners to handle duties on punts and kickoffs. But Ridley is an interesting player to keep an eye on. Before spring practice, Ridley was working on fielding punts, which could make him a candidate as a returner. But with how electric McKenzie is in the return game, he’ll easily get the first chance in this area.
Breakout candidate: In all honesty, it’s any of the three place-kickers. There’s no real gauge at the moment as to who is leading the competition. Whoever gets the job — whether it’s Blankenship, Ham or Wasson — will have a big responsibility to hit kicks under pressure.
Previous stories in this series
Looking ahead at Georgia’s defensive backs
Looking ahead at Georgia’s outside linebackers
Looking ahead at Georgia’s defensive line
Looking ahead at Georgia’s inside linebackers
This story was originally published June 25, 2016 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Summer UGA football lookahead: Plenty of unknown on special teams."