Rodrigo Blankenship talked to the media on Thursday afternoon for the first time this fall. The junior kicker spoke of various topics. One of which was how he’s treating this preseason. 
Last season, head coach Kirby Smart announced that he would be put on scholarship after the Notre Dame win. After being a preferred walk-on the previous year, there was a big question mark about whether or not he ever would receive a scholarship.
Well, he did and now with a new season upon us, Blankenship says nothing’s changed. He treats this year like he’s done with every other year he’s been at Georgia.
“I’m trying to treat this preseason how I’ve treated every preseason,” Blankenship states. “I’m trying to go into it with tenacity and the drive that you know I want to be the best that I can be. I’m trying to go in and attack each and every day, and stay hungry and just approach everyday like I  have something to prove. No matter what gets said there’s tough competition at every single position across the board on this team. So I’m just trying to go out and compete my butt off the best I  can.”
Blankenship went 20-23 on field goals last year. He made 90 percent of his kicks with six of them being from 40-49 yards and five of them being from 50 plus yards. Not to mention he had 67 touchbacks during the season.
When it came to touchbacks, that was one area he needed to improve on from his freshman season when he only had 20 touchbacks.
“I  was proud that I  was able to be more helpful to the team. That was something that the team needed of me. They needed more production out of me in that area,” Blankenship comments. “So I  was just happy to improve in that area and looking to continue to improve going into this season. We’re just trying to be the most complete players that we can be as specialists and help out the team in as many ways as we can.”
Blankenship stepped up big time for his sophomore season, and this season should present another challenge for the kicker. Can he beat his numbers from last year or at least maintain? If he can, Blankenship could be potentially looking at an NFL career.