With a particularly productive afternoon, Georgia Tech kicker Harrison Butker could become the school’s all-time leading scorer Saturday against Virginia. Butker’s 12 points against Virginia Tech last Saturday brought him to 311 career points, just 11 shy of Luke Manget’s record of 322.
With three games remaining (including the bowl game), odds are on his side to break the mark. He has averaged 6.3 points per game over his career.
“It would mean a lot, but I’m trying not to think about it,” said Butker, from Westminster. “I’m a lot closer than I guess I thought I was.”
In his career, Butker has made 38 of 55 field-goal attempts and 197 out of 199 extra-point tries. He has contributed his best season by far this year, making 10 of 12 field-goal tries (an ACC-best 83.3 percent), all 35 PAT’s and is ninth nationally in touchback percentage at a career-best 72.7 percent. Tech is one of 29 FBS schools that hasn’t allowed a kickoff return longer than 39 yards.
Butker is in the company, not surprisingly, of Tech’s greatest kickers. Prior to Saturday, he was tied at 299 with Scott Sisson, who will be forever remembered for his game-winner against then-No. 1 Virginia in 1990. Behind Manget with 321 points is Travis Bell, a two-time All-ACC selection. Manget, a three-time All-ACC choice who beat Georgia in 1999 in overtime, is in the Tech sports hall of fame with Sisson.
Butker, of course, has his own moment of Tech lore, his 53-yarder to send the 2014 Georgia game to overtime.
“I’m trying to lay low and make every kick I can get, because I feel like in the past, I’ve thought about my stats and all that stuff and it didn’t go so well,” he said. “You look forward to the next kick, and you try to make it. It’s boring, it doesn’t sound good, but I think it works.”
