Good piece from Bill King on Georgia’s kicker Rodrigo Blankenship. King reminds us that while Blankenship has his oddities, he’s developed into a damn fine kicker whose 2017 season deserves to be mentioned among Georgia’s best placekicking performances. He made pressure-packed game-winning kicks against Notre Dame and Oklahoma, and his 51-yarder in overtime against Alabama would have been, with apologies to Butler and Munson, the most significant kick in Georgia history had the Dawgs held on.

It’s not too long ago that Blankenship was the goofy guy with glasses and the meddlesome father. Blankenship was after a scholarship, but we forget that he was fighting for the starting role right up to the start of the 2017 season. The scholarship came soon after.

The transformation of Blankenship from a walk-on with a tenuous hold on the starting job to a clutch weapon who coolly nailed field goals from 50+ yards in each playoff game is easy to overlook when we had so many good things going on. The barrage of touchbacks throughout the season was a welcome bonus. Blankenship’s quirks might have made him stand out at first, but his steady production is ensuring that he’ll be remembered for a long time for his kicking.