100 Days to Kickoff: Position Previews - Punter and Kicker

I’m gonna keep the punter portion of this preview short: barring unforeseen circumstances or the world suddenly ending, Pressley Harvin III will be the starting, and hopefully only, punter for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets football team this season.

To quote from Nishant, “I have absolute faith in His Grace Pressley of House Harvin, Third of His Name, King of the Punters and the Football Men, Lord of the Coastal Division, and Protector of Field Position.”

I mean just look at this punt (minus the extremely poor coverage).

Harvin being the starting punter is also pretty much assured because the only other punter on the roster is also a placekicker, Cliff Gandis, an red-shirt freshman from South Carolina.

The kicker position is a semi-different story. Although most would think Wesley Wells has the starter job locked down, that might not be the case. An article in the AJC that came out in April seemed to suggest that Wells will be in a tough competition with Brenton King, who struggled last year but apparently was playing through an injury. In his freshman year, King actually played pretty well, going 5-6 on kicks with his only miss coming from the 40-49 yard range.

So don’t completely write off King yet, but my bet would be that Wells will get the starting job come August based off of his success late last year.

And besides, who doesn’t want a kicker to start when he gets this spirited over a kick with more than a minute left to play? Especially with the [U2] atrocious late game defense this past season. He’s got confidence if nothing else.

Once again, red-shirt freshman Cliff Gandis is the only other player besides King and Wells on the roster, and unless he shows something really special, or injuries occur he probably will not receive much playing time.

Projected Depth:

Punter:

Pressley Harvin III

LINE

Cliff Gandis

Kicker:

Wesley Wells

Brenton King

LINE

Cliff Gandis

What are your thoughts on the Georgia Tech kicking/punting units for the upcoming season?

This is an updated version of the story, in the earlier version, RS freshman Cliff Gandis was inaccurately described as an incoming freshman.