Georgia punter gets a kick from fatherly advice

Athens — Drew Butler hit his parents with a whammy one night over dinner four years ago.

“He looked at us and said, ‘Mom, Dad I want to go out for the football team,’ ” his mother, Cathy, recalled.

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Joey Ivansco/jivansco@ajc.com

Drew Butler was unexpectedly offered a scholarship by Georgia — where his father Kevin, might be best known for his SEC record 60-yard field goal against Clemson in 1984, and mom, Cathy, was a cheerleader.

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It might not have been such a bombshell if their son was 7 and hoping to tryout for peewee. But Drew was headed into his sophomore year of high school with a past rooted in soccer and golf.

Lucky for Drew, he had a secret weapon: his father. Kevin Butler, one of the top kickers in Georgia history, instantly signed on to be his son’s personal coach.

“I don’t think that’s easy when your parent is your teacher. It’s either going to be great, or it’s going to be not great,” Cathy said with a laugh. “But Kevin is a good teacher and Drew is a good student and it turned out to be a perfect situation.”

The fact that Drew ended up at Georgia was probably the biggest surprise to his father. Before Georgia unexpectedly offered Drew a scholarship in 2007, Kevin had already accepted that his son wasn’t going to be following in his kicking shoes and wearing the red and black.

“I was trying to see what I would look like in a Duke Blue Devil hat or a Wake Forest Deacon hat,” Kevin said. “I’m very happy for him. I think he landed where he should have been.”

After Georgia made the offer, the choice was a no-brainer. Drew, Scout.com’s No. 9 punter in the nation, was going to follow in his father’s large footsteps.

Kevin helped lead Georgia to two Southeastern Conference titles from 1981-84 and is the only kicker to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. He might be best known for his SEC record 60-yard field goal against Clemson in 1984, propelling the Dogs to a 26-23 win.

He kicked off an 11-year career in the NFL by helping the Bears win a Super Bowl in 1985.

Kind of a daunting resume for his son, who didn’t wear football pads until his sophomore year when Peachtree Ridge needed a kicker.

“My dad never pushed me to play. That was probably the good thing about it,” Drew said. “As I kind of grew up, I was moving toward punting as a natural ability. Most of the comparisons kind of fell off statistically. Hopefully I’ll get to do my own thing as far as punting goes.”

The Bulldogs redshirted Drew last season, which Drew said was tough to accept. But halfway through the year, he realized maybe it wasn’t so bad and tried to absorb all he could from teammates Brandon Coutu and Brian Mimbs.

“I took that in stride and I worked hard, and I’ve worked hard ever since,” he said. “The coaches redshirted me last year for a reason and now they want to know what I’ve got. I’m just working hard to prove to the coaches that I can be the guy.”

Mimbs, a senior, is slated to return as starting punter this season with Drew as the backup. Through it all, Drew knows his father is there backing him up.

They’ve bonded over nearly every major sporting event: Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, World Cup, NBA championships.

Drew said they golf frequently, “I can beat him and he can beat me.”

And hunt occasionally, “which is always adventurous because me and my dad aren’t the hunting kind.”

But at the end of the day, their relationship will always intertwine between father/son, coach/player.

“The cool thing is, I know what I do wrong and I tell him and he knows the answer,” Drew said. “It’s a really cool relationship as far as he’s my dad, but also my coach and my best friend, too.”