A bigger Aidan Birr looking for biggest season yet

The weight gain, by Aidan Birr’s own admission, was serendipitous.

Georgia Tech’s junior kicker took a liking to cooking steaks, among other things this offseason, and has put on 10 pounds. Now tipping the scales at 205 pounds, up from 195 during the 2024 season, a bigger Birr has equated to better kicking this preseason.

“I’m kicking the ball a lot further. It’s like touchbacks every time,” he said Thursday. “I had a lot of touchbacks last year, but I just feel like they’re booming. I’m getting a lot more hangtime on ‘em. Field goals feel better. Even contact on ‘em, I feel like I don’t have to hit the ball that hard, and it’s going, going straight, and hope to carry that to the season.”

Birr has already had a solid career as Tech’s primary kicker and can continue to climb the program’s record books with another stellar season in 2025.

The Texas native ranks sixth in Tech history in PATs made (82), career points (178) and field goals (32). His 78% kicking percentage on field goals ranks as the best among Yellow Jackets all-time.

And that’s even after a down season in 2024, by Birr’s standards.

“I think I let the team down in multiple cases last year, multiple games. I just wanna be more consistent,” Birr said. “I don’t wanna have the riding the roller coaster. I think I rode the roller coaster a lot last season. Hit a game-winner, I’m on top of the world, everybody loves you. And then you start (to) miss a few, and now you’re hated, you’re the villain.”

Birr recalled late October during the week of practice before the Jackets traveled to play at Virginia Tech. Birr had missed two of his previous four kicks over the prior two games and was battling illness that week to make matters worse.

But Tech coach Brent Key, Birr said, had the team rally around him toward the end of a practice. Even when Birr continued to miss a few kicks, Birr said it dawned on him what really mattered.

“I think I just realized everyone still believed in me on this team,” he added. “I feel like I had a better year at the end of the season after that game. Just realizing that these guys in the locker room, they care about me a lot. Even if I’m not doing good, it’s complementary football, that they got my back, and I plan to have their back a lot more this season.”

Birr is 32 of 41 for his career on field goal attempts and 82 of 83 on extra points. He also had 50 touchbacks on 70 kickoffs in 2024.

The next record Birr said he’s after is the program’s mark for longest field goal of 55 yards.