Pressley Harvin thrives on doubters. Now he’ll be NFL’s next Black punter
Music played in the distance, part of an on-campus celebration for Georgia Tech graduates.
Not too far from the noise, Pressley Harvin III parked his car next to the Georgia Tech football team’s indoor practice facility. Harvin, a few weeks from graduation, had bigger things on his mind: The NFL Draft is April 29 through May 1.
Harvin was a standout at Sumter High School in South Carolina five years ago. Now he is regarded as one of the top punting prospects in this year’s NFL Draft.
“This is bigger than me celebrating my four years of school,” Harvin said. “Days like today, I would rather not go to that but stay and work a little bit extra. Someone always is working harder than you. I’m trying to be the punter in this draft that is working harder than every other punter.”
A late afternoon thunderstorm on this day pushed Harvin’s workout indoors instead of outside at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Former Auburn long snapper Ike Powell emerged from his car at the same time as Harvin. Powell has served as Harvin’s long snapper the last several weeks, including at his pro day for NFL scouts in March.
The two stretched and got ready for the workout, which was a light one. Kicking indoors presents the challenge of not hitting the roof, but Harvin navigated around it for the most part during the 45-minute workout.
Not your average punter
Harvin isn’t built like a typical NFL punting prospect and doesn’t look like a typical specialist — two observations he has grown accustomed to hearing.
From the tiny South Carolina town of Alcolu — about 20 minutes southeast of Sumter — Harvin embraces the fact that he isn’t like most punters. At 262 pounds (with the goal of getting to 255), he’s 40 pounds heavier than the NFL average for the position. Harvin also is trying to make a little bit of history, becoming one of the few Black players to ever play the position in the NFL.
Harvin made history this year with Georgia Tech, becoming the first Black punter to lead the nation in punting with a 48.0-yard average. He also was the first Black punter to win the Ray Guy Award, named after the former Oakland Raiders Hall of Famer and given annually to the nation’s top punter.
He didn’t play soccer growing up, something many kicking specialists have done at some point in their career. He instead spent his springs on the Sumter track and field team, finishing runner-up in the shot put and fourth in discus in the Class 5A meet his senior year in 2017.
Harvin was a first chair in Sumter’s concert band — and plays four different versions of the saxophone. He also plays the piano, and he played both instruments at his home church of Mount Nebo Missionary Baptist Church in Alcolu. Harvin’s father, Pressley Jr., played music in church and his uncle and grandfather also were into music.
Music was fun for Harvin, and it gave him a “Plan B” in case sports didn’t work out.
“I don’t fit any description of it all,” Harvin said. “People see things like that as a risk instead of unique. That is how I always portrayed myself as being unique and different, not fitting into standard and stereotype, and breaking down standards and stereotypes.”
It was Harvin’s size — not color — that people became fixated on, especially early in his college career. Folks on social media were abuzz during the first game of his freshman year against Tennessee.
“I remember one person posted, ‘Why does Georgia Tech have a punter that is the same size as a defensive lineman?’ “ Harvin recalled. “From that moment on, I wanted to tell people you shouldn’t care what I look like if I can do the same job if not better than other guys.”
Harvin has tried to not let comments about his weight bother him. He also finds it funny that people are still surprised when they find out he is a punter — despite being built like a fullback or linebacker.
“I was picking my car up the other day and one of the girls saw my Georgia Tech shirt and asked me if I played football,” Harvin said. “I said, ‘I’m a punter,’ and she said, ‘Aren’t they usually smaller guys?’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m not the usual, I’m a little different.’ I have embraced it. My size doesn’t portray a punter, it portrays something different.”
Black punters in the NFL
Black quarterbacks were once uncommon in the NFL, but not anymore. Black specialists, however, remain a rarity. Only a handful of Black punters have kicked in a game in the NFL, according to a 2016 story by USA Today.
Marquette King was the last Black punter to play in the NFL, spending seven years with the Oakland Raiders and Denver Broncos from 2012-18. He’s attempting to make a comeback to the league.
King and Harvin struck up a friendship when Harvin attended the Kohl’s national kicking camps in high school and King was helping out at the camp. Harvin’s family couldn’t attend the annual camp one year because his mother was sick, so King took him under his wing and the two still talk regularly.
King has given Harvin advice during the draft process, and the two sometimes work out together in Atlanta.
“He was the role model that I look to the the most in my punting,” Harvin said of King.
Harvin has also talked with former Minnesota Vikings punter Greg Coleman, who played 12 years in the NFL as the league’s first Black punter. He watched film on former Miami Dolphins punter Reggie Roby, who kicked 16 years in the NFL and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection.
Many of Harvin’s coaches have compared him to the late Roby, who stood at 6-foot-3 and weighed 258 pounds.
“Seeing a guy of that stature like Reggie Roby and being able to do it for 16 years is ridiculous. I’m kind of dealing with the same skeptics right now,” Harvin said. “Being that tight-knit group of guys, and I appreciate the guys that came before me. ... Every Black specialist I trained with I know on a personal basis because there is a small-knit community. We all got each other’s back.”
There is a unique bond between Black specialists, Harvin said, because there are so few of them — a fact he hopes will change in the future.
Harvin also wants to use his platform as a role model for kids, including those back in Sumter. He points out that since he graduated in 2017, Sumter High has only had Black specialists. Dyson Roberts was one of those specialists, and hit the game-winning field goal for South Carolina State over Delaware State last weekend.
“I appreciate the fact that whoever comes on my path, good or bad, has made me what I am today. I can help kids embrace it or try it out,” Harvin said. “Guys see that they don’t have to be a quarterback, running receiver or lineman.”
Getting started as a punter
Harvin got involved with football as a kid and was playing offensive line in the seventh grade at Bates Middle School in Sumter. One practice changed the trajectory of his athletic career.
Harvin’s coach asked for volunteers to try out for the team’s punter — and he was up for the challenge. Harvin’s first attempt went straight up in the air and didn’t have much distance. It didn’t matter. After that he was set on being the best punter he could be.
“It would have been easy for me to say I’m not going to do it. I am going to be on the offensive line,” Harvin said. “But I was trying to be selfless, try new things and help the team out. But ever since that time the ball hit my foot, I was just like, ‘I want to do this.’
“I felt punting was a little bit different. Everyone wanted to be a skill player and everyone wanted to be the biggest lineman. I think I fit in well with being a specialist, especially back in Sumter.”
Harvin started out on the all-freshmen B team his first year at Sumter High, but that didn’t last long. Reggie Kennedy, who was Harvin’s head coach at Sumter for first two years, remembers the B team coach telling him about Harvin.
Kennedy then watched Harvin boot two or three balls over 50 yards. His time with the freshman squad was over.
“The first time he hit it. Boom! So we gave him the nickname Thunderfoot,” said Kennedy, who is now the coach and athletic director at Manning High School. “I said, ‘Hit it again.’ He did it again. Boom! I said, ‘You ain’t playing B team no more.’ ”
Harvin was a four-year punter for Sumter and a Shrine Bowl selection his senior season. He also played some tight end for the Gamecocks. He remembers one of his assistant coaches telling him he should stick to tight end because that would give him a better opportunity to play in college.
Kennedy thought the same thing at first, but after seeing Harvin continue to improve at punting, he didn’t really bring it up again.
“I said, ‘He is going to make some money with his leg so leave him alone.’ He could just punt,” Kennedy said. “He was a great kid all-around, coachable. He struggled a little at first with the pressure. But once he dealt with that, he could really boom it and flip the field for you.”
What draft experts are saying
ESPN’s Mel Kiper has Harvin as the top punter in this year’s NFL Draft. NFL.com and CBS Sports have him third behind Kentucky’s Max Duffy and Cincinnati’s James Smith.
NFL.com’s Lance Zierlin’s draft profile of Harvin reads: “Wide-body punter with extra quick operation time. Harvin was a heralded punter out of high school and seemed to improve throughout his time at Georgia Tech. His quick get-off might need to be slowed to help out his coverage team, though. He has an NFL leg and is consistent as a directional punter, which gives him a shot to be drafted.”
Since 2010, 18 punters have been selected in the NFL Draft, with four going in 2018. The highest a punter has been selected in that span was in 2012 when California’s Bryan Anger went in the third round to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Punters are typically picked between rounds five through seven.
Harvin isn’t worried about the round he’s drafted or what team selects him.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons have shown the most interest in him, he said. Being taken by the Falcons would keep Harvin in Atlanta and is an appealing option. More than 20 NFL scouts and new Falcons coach Arthur Smith showed up to watch Harvin punt last month at Georgia Tech’s on-campus pro day. Falcons special teams coordinator Marquice Williams led Tech’s special teams portion of pro day.
Kicking in light rain, Harvin showed off his directional punting skills and also threw a few passes so teams could see his ability to execute a fake punt. He threw a touchdown pass for the Yellow Jackets on a fake punt back against Miami in 2019.
“Being a punter at my size, I feel like I can bring more to the table,” Harvin said. “I can stop and tackle someone on special teams. I can run the ball and throw the ball. That is one thing I wanted to bring to the punting position is how I could show off my leg when I have to. And how to be versatile enough to have other things in my back pocket that I and the coach could use.”
Honing his skills
Harvin started to take punting really serious in the summer after his freshman year at Sumter. He said his mom, Adrienne, was his first punting coach, taking down notes she learned and catching balls from him.
But his parents told him that if he was serious about working on his punting, he needed to get extra coaching. Harvin attended one of Anthony Giugliano’s kicking sessions one day at River Bluff High School. Giugliano, a former Charleston Southern punter who is a regional instructor for Kohl’s Kicking, helps specialists get exposure and helps determine the kickers and punters for the Under Armour All-American game.
“It was pretty obvious his power was there,” Giugliano said. “He had a good foundation for a punter. Just had to fine-tune things, and that’s what we have been doing for the last eight years.”
Giugliano still works with Harvin. The two, along with Los Angeles Rams kicker Brandon Wright, trained recently in Atlanta.
Giugliano said Harvin has one of the strongest lower bodies he’s ever worked with. He compares Harvin’s size and strength to former Oakland Raiders All-Pro kicker Sebastian Janikowski, who like Harvin is known for his body type as well as his kicking.
Harvin caught the attention of colleges after his showing at the Kohl’s National Kicking Showcase. He won the event twice as a sophomore and junior.
“He thrives on competition settings,” Giugliano said. “He thrives off of people who doubt him. When people doubt him, it makes it better. His motivation to prove people wrong and his power are his two strengths going into the draft.”
This story was originally published April 24, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Pressley Harvin thrives on doubters. Now he’ll be NFL’s next Black punter."
