Say what you want about kickers, but when the game is on the line, you want one that you can count on.
If your favorite NFL team is looking for that guy in the 2020 NFL draft, Georgia’s Rodrigo Blankenship is the man for the job.
One of the best kickers in all of college football, Blankenship recently spoke exclusively with Draft Wire about his experience playing for the Bulldogs, the unique challenges that come with his position, and why an NFL team should take a chance on him in this year’s draft.
JM: You made a career-high four field goals at Kentucky back in 2016. Your career long was a 55-yard field goal at Oklahoma in 2018. Which of those milestones do you take more pride in?
RB: That’s a tough question. That Kentucky game was a big moment for me, a very significant moment in my development as a kicker. It was a game that gave me a little more confidence in myself and in my abilities for the rest of that season. The 55 yard field goal against Oklahoma came at the expiration of the first half. It was something that our team really needed in that moment. It gave us some juice going into halftime. We came out in the third quarter and got back in the game. If I was choosing between the two, I would probably have to go with the four field goals at Kentucky. I have a soft spot for that game.
JM: What’s one thing you can do as a kicker to improve deep accuracy?
RB: I think it just comes down to working on your technique and your fundamentals. I have the range to make those longer field goals consistently as long as I hit a clean ball. You have to work on your technique and ensure that you’re fundamentally sound. Whether it’s a 55 yard field goal or a chip shot, you try to treat every single kick the exact same way. The distance shouldn’t matter. You should go out and approach it the same way. It’s all about trying to hit a clean ball every single time.
JM: Say your team is down two points with a minute to go, and your number gets called. It’s a high-pressure situation. How do you respond?
RB: It goes back to treating every kick the same. You can’t get too caught up in the mental side of things. Whether it’s the last two minutes of the game and your team is driving down the field to get you in range for a game winning attempt, or it’s the first drive of the game and the offense stalls, it doesn’t matter to me. You have to go out with a consistent mentality. Your team is expecting you to execute your job at a high level and put points on the board regardless of the situation. The opponent never mattered to me either. That’s where my psyche goes; to be consistent and to repeat the results.
JM: It does feel like the pressure gets to a kicker from time to time. We’ve seen some good, consistent kickers miss some easy ones with the game on the line. There seems to be something about those high-pressure situations. How much of that is a confidence thing?
RB: Playing this position definitely has more of a mental aspect to it than most other positions. I mean, obviously the quarterback position is very much a mental game as well, they need to know the offense not only for themselves but for the guys around them as well. Kicking is definitely a mental position. I think the guys that don’t overthink things are the ones that are the most successful.
There’s a time and a place to think, analyze and critique your technique but there’s also a time where you have to shut everything off and let your muscle memory take over. The guys who have been kicking at a high conversion rate for a long time have that muscle memory. They’re the guys that are able to turn off their brains and trust that their body is gonna do what they’ve been doing for a long time. The guys that handle that the best are the ones that have a lot of success. When the game is over and you have the next day off, that’s the time to get back in the film room and observe and critique what occurred. That’s the moment to look at yourself and think about taking a new approach if necessary.
JM: The kicker position has always been a valuable one, but do you think it’s become even more valuable since the NFL moved the extra point back?
RB: I think that’s fair to say. Having a guy that can consistently make those extra points brings a lot of value to the next level. It’s all about making them at a high mark. There not as much of a gimme as they used to be. They moved it back 13 yards. You can take any kick and move it back 13 yards, that automatically makes it a more difficult kick. It’s definitely added a little extra value to the kicker position. One point can be the difference in any given game.
JM: Please tell me you plan on continuing to wear the thick glasses at the next level? It feels like your trademark at this point.
RB: Absolutely, yeah (laughs). I need them to see. They’re prescription. I definitely need to keep wearing them.
JM: Do you love or hate the nickname, “Hot Rod?”
RB: I initially wasn’t a huge fan of it when my mom wanted to start calling me “Hot Rod” when I was in middle school and high school. I always kinda fought it. When I got to Georgia, there’s a lot of fans there (laughs). I wasn’t able to fight it any longer. It just kinda caught on and I embraced it. I’ve come to love it and appreciate it. It comes with the territory.
JM: How will you look back on your time at Georgia?
RB: I’ll look back on my time at Georgia as the best five years of my life up until this point. I have such incredible memories and experiences from my time there. Georgia shaped me into the kicker and person that I am today. I know that I’ll always be able to lean on Georgia and the support staff there if I ever need to. I’m a Bulldog for life. It’s been the best five years of my life so far.
JM: You’ve had so many great teammates throughout your time at Georgia. If you were going into battle tomorrow and could only bring one with you, who would it be and why?
RB: Ah man, that’s so tough. I think there’s a couple of different ways I can look at it. In one scenario, maybe I wanna bring a guy like Ben Cleveland or Jake Fromm with me because they’re avid hunters and have a great shot (laughs). I could look at somebody like Roquan Smith just because he was such a great guy who did such a good job coordinating our defense. He would be a really good one for strategy or planning. He has so much tactical prowess about him.
I could also think about who I have the most trust in. At that point, it would be Jake Camarda who’s punting right now but has been my holder for the last few years. I have a lot of trust in him. He’s done such a good job holding for me. Those are all different answers to the same question I guess (laughs). It just depends on what lens you wanna look at it from.
JM: Why should an NFL team use one of their draft picks on Rodrigo Blankenship?
RB: I’m a guy that’s gonna come in and be consistent. I’m gonna get the job done at a high level. I’m gonna make my kicks at a high conversion rate for a long time. I’m gonna bring a great fan-base with me. I’m gonna bring a great personality to the locker room.
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