ATHENS — Technically, Blair Walsh doesn’t have a kicking coach, not at Georgia anyway.
The Bulldogs don’t include a kicking coach or even a special-teams coordinator among their NCAA limit of nine assistant coaches. But that doesn’t mean Walsh doesn’t get advice. For that, Georgia’s senior place-kicker has endless resources.
Through high school, Walsh trained at the Nick Gancitano Kicking Academy in South Florida and still talks to Gancitano regularly about kicking. But he hears from plenty of others as well.
“I’ve had a lot of guys reach out to me and talk to me about kicking throughout my entire career,” Walsh said this week. “I talk to them about the ups and downs of the job, and they give me words of encouragement or advice or tell me if they see anything I need to change. Nick, Rex Robinson, Kevin Butler, Billy Bennett, all those guys have been a help to me.”
Walsh is getting more advice than ever as he endures the worst slump of his collegiate career. The 2009 Lou Groza Award finalist has missed 10 of 23 field-goal attempts this season. That’s after missing only five kicks in his sophomore and junior seasons combined (40-of-45). His 376 career points is third-most in the SEC by a kicker.
“Sometimes it can be overwhelming to hear everybody’s opinion,” Walsh said. “But those guys know what they’re talking about. They’ve been doing it a long time, and they’ve been successful at this level and obviously above. I’m open for any advice from them because they know what they’re talking about for sure.”
For decades, Georgia had a kicking coach in the late Bill Hartman Jr., who handled the duty as a volunteer assistant. But the NCAA eliminated volunteer coaches in the late 1990s, and the Bulldogs, like most teams, have been winging it ever since.
Georgia coach Mark Richt said he and the Bulldogs’ assistants generally steer away from giving the kickers technical or mental advice. He equated it to golfers, who generally have their own swing coaches.
“[Kickers] still kind of rely heavily on the guys that have taught them all along,” Richt said. “If you have too many people trying to teach a guy to swing a club or to swing his leg as a kicker you could have problems. The unfortunate thing is we can’t just bring Blair’s coach in there and let him coach him, even for a couple of hours. That is a problem.”
Walsh’s problems finally reached a point where last week Richt opened the kicking competition between Walsh and Brandon Bogotay and had them alternate kicks in Saturday’s game against New Mexico State. Neither player got a field-goal attempt in the game, but Bogotay, a senior, was 4-for-4 on extra points and kicked off four times.
Richt said the competition would continue in practice this week. He would not say how the kicking duties might be distributed Saturday, however. “If I knew 100 percent, I really wouldn’t want to tell you now anyway,” he said.
When you consider that the average score of the Georgia-Auburn series over 114 games is 15.86-15.53 (Georgia leading), it could well come down to a kick. If so, Walsh said he’ll be ready to take it.
“My abilities are still there, and I believe in myself and I believe in my ability to perform on the field consistently,” he said. “I just think I need to get into a rhythm and gets some kicks under my belt and move on from there.”
Etc.
Sophomore outside linebacker Jarvis Jones (knee) has been cleared to play Saturday. ... The Bulldogs practiced for 90 minutes Thursday at Sanford Stadium in a walk-through “rehearsal” workout for Saturday’s game. ... Quarterback Aaron Murray needs to three touchdowns passes to break the UGA record currently held by Matthew Stafford (25). Murray had 24 last season.
