Yesterday for day 99, I covered a defensive tackle that was one of my favorite players of the 2010’s. Now today for day 98, I’ll be covering a kicker that I had the pleasure of meeting one time in an elevator.
Rodrigo Blankenship took the college football world by storm every time he trotted onto the field as a Georgia Bulldog because of his famous rec spec goggles. From 2016 to 2019 in Athens, Blankenship never missed an extra point going 200 for 200 and went 80 for 97 on field goals. People were respecting the specs.
Out of high school, Blankenship was a 3 star kicker that picked to stay in Georgia over other offers that included Auburn. He redshirted for the 2015 season and in 2016 took over as the Bulldogs kicker. As a redshirt freshman, Hot Rod went 26 for 26 on extra points and 14 for 18 on field goals.
The following three seasons, Blankenship became one of the best kickers in the nation as he was named Second Team All SEC in 2018, First Team All SEC in 2019, and won the 2019 Lou Garza Award.
Blankenship also made the 2019 Walter Camp team, an event that I was attending while I was on winter break from college. About two hours before the event, I went up to a hotel room to pick up my tuxedo and the person who walked in behind me was the Georgia kicker. I turned to him and then did a double take realizing who it was. I said “holy shit, you’re a legend.” He responded with “Well I appreciate that.” and then got off the elevator on the next floor. Not a huge interaction, but a cool one.
Tomorrow for day 97, I don’t really know who I’ll be going over, but I’ll figure it out.