Georgia football: ‘Hot Rod’ on track to take it all home, and he should

For the third time, this season, Georgia football’s Rodrigo Blankenship has won an SEC Player of the Week award. Hot Rod’s already a fan favorite, and now he’s becoming the media’s favorite as well.

Georgia football got the big win over Tennessee this past Saturday, and without the help of Rodrigo Blankenship, the Dawgs might not have gotten that win.

On Monday, the SEC announced that for the third time this year and the fifth in his career, Blankenship was the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week after his efforts against the Vols.

He also received this honor after the Dawgs two wins at Vanderbilt and over Notre Dame.

Against the Vols, Blankenship went 3-for-3 in field goals, including a 50-yarder. He also had nine kickoffs with six touchbacks.

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On the year, He is 11-of-11 for field goals, including being 2-2 on 50-plus yard field goals.

Blankenship also has 29 touchbacks on the year.

According to the Georgiadogs.com post about him, Blankenship is the SEC’s leading scorer so far this season with 11.6 points a game.

He’s also tied at No. 2 nationally in 2019, averaging 2.2 field goals a game.

Blankenship is the top-scoring kicker with 60 points through five games.

His 371 career points and 64 successful field goals rank fourth in Georgia football history.

Right now, he averages 5.8 touchbacks a game. He’s on pace to have 87 touchbacks if he keeps going at this rate.

There isn’t much he cannot do on the football field, and Blankenship seems to get better each week he kicks. I remember when he first got here, and no one knew what he was capable of, not even him, I don’t think.

Now he gets more cheers than starting quarterback Jake Fromm does, and well, people still find that wild.

Georgia’s got a rich history of kickers, and he’s putting his stamp on the record book. There is no telling how many records he’ll break in his final season as a Dawg. However, he will go down as the most likable in Dawg’s history.

The only thing left to do is win the Lou Groza Award. He was one of the award’s stars of the week after the Notre Dame game, and you can vote here to keep him one of them, here.

Voting doesn’t help anyone win the award, but if we keep him in the know, then his chances of winning could go up, possibly.

Blankenship has been on the semi-finalists list the last two years for the award, and well now he has the chance to take it all.

I mean, he could win a Heisman, but no kicker has ever done it. Nor will Blankenship, but it’s fun to wish. Even the head coach joked about it during his press conference on Monday, as Kirby Smart was all for jumping on the campaign.

Regardless, Georgia has the best kicker in the SEC on campus, if not the entire country. The Dawgs need to make sure he keeps doing what he’s doing, and the Lou Groza Award should be his.