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Thursday, February 7, 2008
Who kicks? Who punts?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You might have noticed that Georgia Tech signed no punters or kickers on Wednesday. I talked with coach Paul Johnson about that on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what he said (paraphrased).
Yes, the Yellow Jackets have to replace Ray Guy Award winner Durant Brooks and kicker Travis Bell, one of the best in school history. But former special teams coach Charles Kelly, now the cornerbacks coach, assured Johnson that Tech has good candidates to replace them.
In the kicking department, there’s Scott Blair, who handled kickoffs last fall, and Mohamed Yahiaoui, who did that in 2006. Neither looked as sharp as Bell when I watched preseason workouts in 2007, but that’s a long time ago.
As for punting, I seem to remember someone other than Brooks booming punts in preseason practice. (It might have been Kevin Crosby.) The only problem was a lack of consistency, and if that were fixed the Jackets would be in great shape at punter.
Johnson said that, in general, he hopes to find punters and kickers from walk-ons, though he said that he would not rule out signing a specialist in the future if the player and the situation warrants.
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