Explaining the superlative performance of Pressley Harvin

“You’ve got to match all that up with all of it in motion,” said Anthony Giugliano, Harvin’s coach from back home in South Carolina from the time he was a high-school sophomore.

In a year in which so much more has been in motion than a football and his muscled right leg, Harvin has demonstrated dependable expertise in his craft. Punt after punt, Harvin has blasted cannon shots downfield, sending punt returners into a backpedal and providing Yellow Jackets gunners the fleeting seconds to race downfield and capture a field-position advantage. Through seven games, the superior work of Harvin and the punt team has been the most dependable element of coach Geoff Collins’ team.

“Just to stay disciplined throughout this whole crazy COVID year, to be able to come out and hit the ball like he is just speaks to his discipline on and off the field,” said a noted admirer, former Tech punter Durant Brooks, the only Jacket to ever to win the Ray Guy Award as national punter of the year.

It is Harvin’s consistency that has struck Brooks, now living in Norcross and working as a vice president for a commercial HVAC company.

“Knowing that, if it’s fourth down and you need a good punt, he’s going to deliver,” Brooks said.

Or, put another way, “I don’t get that nervous feeling every time,” Harvin’s mother, Adrienne, said. “I still get it, but I don’t get it as much when he comes up to punt.”

Entering Friday’s games, Harvin ranked fourth nationally at 47.7 yards per punt, his best season average to this point (he’s second at Tech in career average behind Brooks) and on track to break Tech’s single-season record, held by Rodney Williams (45.6 yards, set in 1997). He twice has been recognized as the Ray Guy Award’s national punter of the week. But more important to Harvin, the Jackets stood third in FBS in net punting at 45 yards per punt before Friday’s games.

“That’s a team one,” Harvin said, explaining net punting’s significance. “I could care less about my average. It’s the team average I’m more concerned about.”

Harvin’s excellence this season in repeatedly connecting his cuneiform bones to football sweet spots can be traced back to last winter and spring. Particularly when quarantining measures freed up his time, Harvin returned to the basics, training by himself on the fields at Tech’s Campus Recreation Center.

“I just really took advantage of the time to break all of my punting stuff down, get better step by step, put together,” he said. “And that hard work is really actually starting to pay off.”

The refinement of his catch, steps, plant, drop and leg swing have served to allow him to let his talent take over and reduce the influence of variables such as wind, field surface and returners.

“But if your consistency is there, no matter what else is put in front of you, you can always produce at a higher level,” he said.

Giugliano, who continues to work with Harvin, has seen the same focus on the technical side.

“Obviously, he’s strong as all get out,” Giugliano said. “He’s built like an ox. That’s never been an issue. Just the small stuff.”

Repeatable techniques increase the likelihood that he’ll catch the ball perfectly flush, like perhaps his punt of the year, at Syracuse in Tech’s third game of the season.

With the line of scrimmage at the Yellow Jackets 32-yard line, the ball landed at the Syracuse 4-yard line and took a sharp right turn and bounced out of bounds, a 64-yard punt, all on the fly. The ball remained aloft for about 4.5 seconds, an NFL-grade time. Harvin allowed the bounce was luck.

“I’ve never hit a bounce like that on a punt, but we’ll definitely take that,” he said. “A lot better than getting a touchback.”

Harvin hit the ball so well that he actually thought it had gone out at the 14 and not the 4. What also speaks to his consistency this season is that Syracuse had made him punt again. Moments before, he uncorked a 54-yarder (hang time: 4.6 seconds) that netted 52 yards with gunner Dontae Smith’s tackle, but an illegal-formation penalty on Tech gave Syracuse coach Dino Babers the opportunity to make Harvin punt again in hopes of securing better field position. However, despite being backed up five yards, Harvin’s second punt pinned the Orange even closer to their goal line.

That sequence is a fitting illustration of his performance.

“You’re not going to hit an A-plus ball every single time,” Harvin said. “Me and my coaches back home, we harped on, this whole offseason, You need to focus in on your ‘B’ and your ‘C’ ball. The hits that aren’t the best and the biggest hits, but the ones that you’re going to most likely hit just about every other time in a game.”

Harvin’s final game of 2018, when he was sent out to punt a school-record 13 times against Georgia, speak to the improvement. Harvin averaged a robust 45.2 yards and he had punts of 57 and 52 yards that were fair caught, but he also had punts of 34, 35 and 37 yards. He has been comparatively metronomic in his output this year.

At the same time, beyond distance, Harvin’s consistency with directional punting has improved, as well.

“His ‘B’ ball is the equivalent of everybody else in the league’s ‘A’ ball,” Giugliano said.

He has become the rare punter who has become a fan favorite. Perhaps in part of his unusual size for a punter (he’s listed at 6-foot-0 and 255 pounds) but certainly for his performance, Harvin gets some of the biggest cheers when the starting lineups are announced before home games.

He has put himself in position for strong consideration for All-American honors and a Ray Guy Award to join Brooks. To Harvin, though, he has taken greater satisfaction from the way his unit, such as gunners Josh Blancato and Jaytlin Askew and long snapper Cade Long, has worked so well, each player doing his part.

“I trust them, they have my trust to get a good kick off,” he said. “I think that’s the most satisfying thing to me. Everybody is on the same page, and we all know we can execute at a high level. I could care less about the Ray Guy Award.”

Giugliano said he assumes that Harvin, should he decide to pass up his extra season of eligibility that all fall athletes have been granted, will be invited to the NFL draft combine. From there, it’s about opportunity and some luck.

“There’s only 32 spots and not all of them are up for grabs,” he said. But, “he’s going to be one of the top five punters in the nation coming out this year.”

Whenever his football ends, Harvin already knows what he wants to do – open an auto body shop focused on modifications like custom paint jobs, decals and LED light installations. Harvin grew up in Alcolu, S.C., with an interest in cars, but his passion has flourished as he has gotten to know people in the customization community in Atlanta.

Harvin has tightened up the profile of his silver 2015 Dodge Dart with red and black decals that flow across the body of his car, his “PH” logo at the top of the windshield and the word “DREAMS” across the bottom. He even has an Instagram account for it.

Credit: Photo

Credit: Photo

Inside, he replaced the floor mats with artificial turf, and he has illuminated the ceiling with fiber optic lights that he installed himself, all 550 lights.

“It looks pretty good, especially at night,” he said. “It has a twinkle effect, like stars do.”

“There’s not one spot on his car that isn’t touched,” said Brandon “Mucho” Machuca, the owner of a Jonesboro auto shop whom Harvin has befriended.

Harvin regularly brings his Dart to local meets to show off and, according to Machuca, has served as an inspiration. Shows that he and Machuca attend often are the province of muscle cars and sleek sports cars like Dodge Chargers and Lamborghinis. Car and Driver describes Harvin’s Dart – which was a gift from his parents in high school – as “basic transportation with all the current amenities in an affordable package.” But since Harvin began showing off his Dart, Machuca said that owners of other Darts and other humble rides like the Chevrolet Cruze have followed his lead.

“I feel like he was one of the big factors that revolutionized the way that people look at the car scene,” Machuca said. “It’s more accepting of anybody. As long as you can pull up and you can show your time and effort, blood, sweat and tears went into it, people are cool with it.”

Harvin, who is on track to graduate in May with a business degree, calls his coming to Tech a “win-win-win” for the football, academics and all that he has gained through his association with the car community in Atlanta.

“It’s definitely broadened my horizons,” said Harvin, who already has begun doing jobs for friends and teammates. “I can definitely say I found a car family.”

Brooks and Harvin have yet to meet, but the former Jacket’s comments about Harvin’s play during the “whole crazy COVID year” are more accurate than he realized. Harvin tested positive for COVID-19 upon his return to campus in the summer and was asymptomatic, but developed symptoms in August including a fever and congestion. Harvin is asthmatic, which may have aggravated symptoms.

“It was gut-wrenching not to be able to be there with him,” Adrienne Harvin said.

For Harvin, who has not had problems since, the episode reinforced the gravity of the pandemic.

“A lot of people have been really sick,” he said. “It’s no joke.”

Whether it’s walking to get lunch with his girlfriend or waiting on the sideline for his next turn to punt, Harvin said that wearing a mask has become second nature. Harvin said he reminds teammates on the sideline to keep their masks on.

“Even if I’m by myself somewhere and nobody’s really around me, I still want to wear it,” he said.

In a year where strict adherence to routine and creating distance from threats have become priorities, Harvin has done his part.