As Georgia Tech’s longtime sports-medicine director, Jay Shoop is asked annually by the ACC to nominate a Yellow Jackets football player for the conference’s Brian Piccolo Award.
Shoop did not take long to decide upon A-back Robert Godhigh for the award, given to the most courageous player in the ACC.
“He just has, in my opinion, a lot of heart and has just been an inspiration to everybody because of his tenacity, his desire not only to overcome, but just to do well,” Shoop said. “He does not think of himself as undersized or not having a chance, and I think he’s proved that he’s equal to anyone we put out there.”
The conference agreed with Shoop. On Thursday, he was named this year’s recipient of the Piccolo Award. It is perhaps the capstone of one of the more memorable individual seasons in recent Tech history. It is a fitting tribute to a player who arrived at Tech as a walk-on, is one of the smallest players in FBS, underwent offseason surgery on his shoulder and pinkie and played this fall with fearlessness and breathtaking ability.
The award is in memory of the late Piccolo, who was the ACC player of the year at Wake Forest in 1964 and played five seasons for the Chicago Bears before dying of cancer at the age of 26. Godhigh will be honored Friday in Charlotte, N.C., as part of the ACC’s Night of Legends leading to the conference championship game Saturday.
“It’s definitely a huge honor,” Godhigh said. “I’m still in shock about it, really.”
Godhigh’s career has been a study in overcoming. Deemed too small and slow to earn a major-college scholarship, he turned down a scholarship offer to FCS Wofford to walk on at Tech in hopes of earning playing time and a scholarship. He then worked his way up the depth chart to finally be put on scholarship and start as a junior and senior.
He will graduate later this month with a degree in management.
“No. 1, the award itself is about courage and overcoming, and first and foremost, I think he’s done that his whole career,” Shoop said.
In last year’s Georgia game, Godhigh sprained the A/C joint in his shoulder and then took a pain-killing shot to play in Tech’s bowl game. He thought that the injury had healed itself after the season, but he aggravated the injury in spring practice. He played through the pain and had surgery soon after.
Cutting spring practice short was not an option.
“That’s just how I am,” he said. “I just want to play.”
He played with a cast for the first few games because of surgery to repair a broken finger in July. He sheepishly admitted Wednesday that he suffered the injury hitting a wall in his apartment in anger.
Taking tosses out of the backfield, catching passes downfield and undercutting defenders with cut blocks, Godhigh was perhaps Tech’s most consistent and effective player this season. He finished 10th in the ACC in rushing with 57.8 yards per game and did so with just 69 carries, averaging 10.1 yards per carry. The nine players ahead of him all had at least twice as many carries as Godhigh.
He’ll cherish plenty of yards and touchdown, but two touchdown runs in particular — a 35-yarder against Pittsburgh and a 65-yard burst against Clemson, both on tosses.
Of the Clemson touchdown, in which the perimeter was blocked cleanly by A-back Synjyn Days and receivers DeAndre Smelter and Micheal Summers:
“I just remember we had talked about it on the sideline because we had messed it up earlier. We had talked about it, and we went out and ran it the first play that we went out there for the next series, and I just remember it being, like, the most wide open I’d really seen it in a long time.”
On the Pitt touchdown, in which he ran to the left sideline and into a pile just past the line of scrimmage, only to emerge into the clear to the end zone:
“I saw a little hole, so I was like, I’ll just try and get what I can. And then the guy ended up not tackling me. It kind of surprised me, so I was like, ‘Oh, well, I’ll just keep running.’”
It has been a career of surprises, for those watching and Godhigh himself, with a deserved honor at its end.
“Even last year, coming in (and) starting, I didn’t really think I would play as well as I have the past couple years, but it definitely feels good to play at this level,” he said.
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