It’s hard to be critical of punters, especially when they’re doing their work amid 30-miles-an-hour wind gusts as Georgia’s were in Florida this past Saturday. But the Bulldogs’ simply aren’t getting the job done, and they have been put on notice.
Georgia used both of their punters — junior Collin Barber and walkon senior Adam Erickson — in the 38-20 loss to the Gators, and neither did well. They averaged 33 yards on six punts and Florida averaged 19 yards on two returns. Meanwhile, UF punter Kyle Christy averaged 46 yards on five punts.
But this wasn’t a one-time, windy-day struggle for the Bulldogs. Heading into the ninth game of the season Saturday at Kentucky, Georgia is last in the 14-team SEC in net punting at 35.8 yards.
Consequently, a competition between punters — Barber, Erickson and all comers — has been renewed on Woodruff Practice Fields this week.
“That’s about all we can do right at this minute,” Georgia coach Mark Richt said. “We’re competing and deciding who should be the guy to start and who should be the guy in any given situation. Last week was a tough week to gauge punters as the wind was going. But we just haven’t been getting much field-position change from the punters. We’re just not getting it out there as far as we’d like.”
Georgia has actually done a good job of keeping opposing punt returners at bay. Florida’s Andre Debose got loose on a 38-yard return late in the third quarter this past Saturday. That was the longest return allowed by the Bulldogs this season but led to a Gators’ touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
“The good news is there’s not been a lot of return yards,” Richt said. “It’s almost zero return yards per punt. That part’s good. … But, still, you’ve got to flip the field more than 32 yards or whatever it has been.”
Asked if the Bulldogs intended to recruit a punter in this year’s class, Richt replied: “We’re always looking.”
“When we had the last two guys, (place-kicker Blair) Walsh and (punter Drew) Butler, right about this time we started looking at guys two years down the road, which was Collin and Marshall,” Richt said. “That’s kind of what we’ve been doing all year long. I don’t think we’re looking to change gears and get a guy in this year’s class. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen. We just haven’t been going crazy over it to this point.”
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