According to Chip Towers, the media hasn’t heard a peep from Ken Blankenship since Kirby started bringing in every kicker he bumped into on the street.
Either the man’s learning he’s holding the weak hand in all this, or he’s so enraged he can’t type coherently.
Get The Picture 
Maybe he’s working two jobs to pay his son’s tuition?
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Part of the issue is that he doesn’t have a job. He retired from his teaching job without making sure to fund his kids 529 plan.
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Bingo! He retired on his own accord (assumption here from me) and did not choose to continue working to insure Rodrigo’s college education. It is not a decision I would have made. Then he compounded his error thinking he could leverage an average performance by his son by going to the media and putting a gum to KS’s head….publicly. Had he laid his cards out in a private way, he may have gotten what he wanted. But then he escalated the situation with his second meeting. Smart obviously came prepared with a list of shortcomings to explain what Hot Rod had to do which should have been a signal to Ken that this wasn’t going well. After which Daddy revealed details of the meeting to the media which had to tick Smart off.
Very poorly played Daddio, I feel sorry for the son and the position you have put him in. If he doesn’t develop some leg strength before summer, I don’t think he has a role in this team…perhaps a backup.
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I’ve defended Ken fighting for his Son, but we’ve been shown who has all the cards here. I really want Rodrigo to be the guy, just because I like his all business personality and this ‘wild thing’ persona everyone has given him….. so I hope he gets pushed enough to be the guy.
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I am a little uncomfortable being in agreement with Chip Towers, but I agree with him about our kicking situation. Having a kicker or a punter, or a quarterback who is the best at his position AT GEORGIA is no longer the benchmark.
I am pulling like hell for Pinkie, but if somebody beats him out I will pull like hell for him, too.
If Pinkie beats out five other kickers (or however many there are) he’s probably pretty good, you know?
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Unlike Chip the RecSpecs don’t do a thing for me. I’m only hoping that any one of these kickers will perform better than what we saw in 2016. If it is Blankenship fine, if not, fine.
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Ayo, lesson here Bey: you come at the king, you best not miss.
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^This. Rodrigo is toast. He’s kicked his last FG at Georgia. For him to be “the man” at kicker every other one of those imports discussed in the article is going to have to be a bust and that isn’t likely.
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I don’t know. They may beat him out but you only know what a kicker can do once he’s actually done it in front of 90k fans. Rodrigo is the only one who has done that, and he did it well.
Unless one of those guys is consistently booming 55+ yarders at practice, Rodrigo’s going to have to either look like garbage in practice or screw up in a game for any of the others to get an opportunity.
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“Rodrigo is the only one who has done that, and he did it well.”
Depends on what you mean by “well”. Certainly his accuracy improved. Would be nice if he gets a little stronger and improves his range.
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Problem with that is two of the kickers are graduate transfers – granted Wofford and Columbia do not regularly play in big stadiums, but Marvin was 2/2 at Ole Miss in 2016, including a 50 yard FG.
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Only one kicker on scholarship next year – grad transfer from Wofford. I find it hard to believe they would use a scholarship spot in this tight class unless Kirby thought he could come in and win the job.
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I’d like to see Rodrigo have a great career at UGA, and with Butler helping him, I believe he can greatly improve on his Freshman All-American season. But Kirby doesn’t need the distraction of a “soccer dad” with the team, so I can’t see Rodrigo kicking at UGA anymore.
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Kirby doesn’t like his Judgment questioned.
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Helicopter dads. As a coach I really disliked them. Had one sitting in the first base bleachers get his kid picked off, coaching from the stands. Opposing coach told me after the game he called the pickoff when he saw it. We lost by one. I think it cost us the game. Runner on 1 and 3, one out. Steal on. Good hitter up. Pickoff and thanks to Dad it’s two down and no options other than swing away.
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I don’t see how you bring that many kickers in even giving one a schollie and not be intent on sending a message.
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@Walt February 6, 2017 at 2:29 PM
“Maybe he’s working two jobs to pay his son’s tuition?”
Maybe he’s working on a new question that will be even better than the last one:
“Did Coach Smart make All-SEC as a walk-on his freshman season?”
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again….The deck is so stack against kids like Blankenship. I wouldnt care about any of this if he could freely transfer….even if he choose not to, but he can’t and that sucks especially since UGA hasnt actually given him a scholarship.
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Is that true if he’s not on scholarship? If he’s a walk-on, I thought he could go walk-on anywhere, anytime.
However, it wouldn’t surprise me to find the NCAA blocks this somehow. You know, for the kids.
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I believe he was a PWO and they are treated like scholarship athletes in terms of transfer limitations. It’s because they were “recruited” to walk on…
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“A walk-on (non-scholarship athlete) may use the One-Time Transfer Exception as long as the school he/she is leaving did not recruit him/her to their college.” The only difference between a preferred walk on and a regular one is that they would count against the 25 man class limit if they receive a scholarship before their junior (or redshirt soph) season.
The way the NCAA determines whether a school recruited an athlete is listed here if you want to read.
http://informedathlete.com/ncaa-rules-definintion-of-a-recruited-athlete/
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Can’t he head off to 1-AA or lower and not have to sit out. Also, why, if he is not on scholly, does he have to sit out a year, going to a Div 1 school? Makes no sense. Then again a lot of the NCAA makes no sense to me.
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