University of Georgia Athletics
Quick Chat: Rodrigo Blankenship
November 13, 2018 | Football, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
He is, in these parts at least, a celebrity — the celebrity kicker. Rodrigo Blankenship draws huge cheers when he's introduced at Sanford Stadium, having earned every bit of the admiration and affection with his sustained excellence during the past two-plus seasons as Georgia's placekicker and his quirky yet engaging personality.
Heading into this Saturday's game against UMass, the redshirt junior has made 17 of 19 field-goal attempts, connected on all 43 point-after tries, his 63 touchbacks are four shy of the school record he set last season — and he's 0-for-1 passing after the incompletion to Isaac Nauta on the trick play last week against Auburn.
Earlier this season, I sat and watched the Marietta, Ga., native read to a second-grade class at Barrow Elementary School. It was a story about a kid and his dreams, and as I wrote afterward, that story was perfect for Blankenship, the former walk-on who has become a star.
A little over a year ago, Blankenship and I sat down for what would become one of my favorite Quick Chats ever. We got together again Monday and here is some of what he had to say:
Frierson: How much does kicking change with the seasons? I thought about this Saturday night late in the first half, because it looked like a long field-goal attempt might be a possibility and it was 43 degrees. I assume you lose some yardage in cold weather.
Blankenship: When it gets cold, balls get kind of hard and the air's a little thicker, so I think it's a factor not just for specialists but for quarterbacks throwing the ball — I think everyone is affected a little bit. ... As far as that game was concerned, I think I still probably had the range for [a long field-goal attempt] but Coach Smart wanted to go ahead and go for it, and if I remember correctly it turned out pretty good for us. [Terry Godwin scored on a 38-yard touchdown catch.] ...
Just thinking about Saturday in particular, I think I still made from 57 (yards in warmups) going toward the opposite end zone and 55 going toward the West end zone where our locker room is, so I was still hitting the ball pretty well.
Frierson: You attempted your first career pass on Saturday, on the fake field goal — what is it like in the moments before the ball is snapped and this play that you've practiced is about to be put to the test? Are you nervous or scared?
Blankenship: I was just thinking about trying to throw the best pass I could to give Isaac a chance to catch it. The way that we had drawn that fake up, we didn't have to do anything out of the ordinary with our alignment or normal field-goal process. There wasn't anything major to give it away before the snap and I was just trying to think, just give him a chance to catch it.
He's a former Army All-American in high school and a great player for us, and I was just thinking if I can get it in range of him, he's going to make a play and we'll come away with some points. It didn't quite happen, I put a little too much on it.
Frierson: Back in September you read "Dreaming of the Redcoat Band" to that class at Barrow. Do you have a favorite book from when you were a kid or to this day, something you find yourself reading once a year or so?
Blankenship: When I was much younger, much, much younger, a favorite book that my parents would always read to me was "The Monster at the End of This Book." ... It was about, I can't remember his name, Oscar maybe [Note: it was Grover], he was blue, furry guy, he kind of looked like Cookie Monster but he was much slimmer and he for the whole book was like, "Don't turn the page, don't turn the page, there's a monster, if you get to the end of this book there's a monster at the end of the book."
I remember the next-to-last page there's a big explosion of color and he's like, "I told you not to do it!" The last page is like, oh, I guess I was the monster at the end of the book, and there's nothing to be afraid of.
I always liked having that book read to me when I was really young.
Frierson: What about since you've gotten to college, has there been something you've read that's really reached you?
Blankenship: I don't know that there's been a favorite since I've been at college, most of the books I've had to read have been textbooks and those are no fun most of the time.
I had to read "Night" by Elie Wiesel for an AP class in high school and I remember that book being the only book to ever make me cry as I read it. It was a very emotional and very powerful book, so I think the most engaging book I've ever read was "Night."
[Note: "Night" is a memoir of Wiesel's experiences as a child in the German concentration camps during World War II. As Blankenship said, it's very emotional and powerful and moving.]
Frierson: Is there anything really old-school that you're into, like music or movies or cars?
Blankenship: When I was younger, going through elementary school, my dad (Ken) would take me to school every day and we would go in his Ford Ranger from, like, 1996, and we would listen to his cassette tapes, there was no aux (auxiliary) cord or CD player. He had a bunch of Beatles tapes, so I grew up listening to The Beatles and I'm a really big fan of The Beatles.
I'm also a little bit of an old car junkie. Back home in Marietta, on the first Saturday of every month, I think, at 8 a.m. there's an old car show at Piedmont Church. Whenever I was home and available, my dad and I would always get up and go to that. All the old cars, like '55 Chevys or old Pontiacs, that kind of stuff, any kind of old car you can imagine, would be there.
Frierson: Do you have a dream car that you'd like to one day own?
Blankenship: If I was going to have an old car, I think it would be an old Camaro. I remember when the first "Transformers" movie came out and one of the first Transformers was Bumble Bee and he starts off as an old Camaro, like a '69 Camaro, and then halfway through the movie he does this little scanning thing and he turns into a new Camaro, and from that point the old Camaro became one of my favorite old cars.
Frierson: What's the best live performance you've ever seen?
Blankenship: The only live performances I can remember are the shows that I would go to for my mom. My mom (Izabel) was in a flamenco group called Caló Gitano and my dad and I would go support her whenever we could. When her group was performing, those were probably the best live shows I've seen — she was pretty awesome.
Frierson: Every time I talk to you I discover some new and interesting ground. Was this a regular performance, like every week?
Blankenship: It was a couple of times a month.
Frierson: Do you have any flamenco game?
Blankenship: Uh, no (laughs). My mom really wanted me to get into it, she even asked me if I would join the group because there were a couple of instruments that I could have played, but I never quite got into it.
Frierson: Is there always dancing going on around the house?
Blankenship: She's kind of winding down with her dancing career but there was a point where I'd come home pretty much every night and she's opened up her, my dad and I would just call it the stomping board. She's got like a fold out wooden board she'd lay down on the floor and she'd be dancing on that just about every night.
(This Q&A was lightly edited for length and clarity.)
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
