Roster depth is critical for any achieving football team around this time of year.
Injuries happen and quality backups are a must. In that regard, Georgia football has gems.
When quarterback Carson Beck went down during the SEC Championship game, Georgia turned to a third-year sophomore who came in with three spring practices and some second-half action against FSU in the Orange Bowl in December of last year.
Gunner Stockton, a former four-star prospect from Rabun County, scored 254 combined rushing and passing touchdowns in high school.
Georgia has that same eye-catching talent in other position backup: punter.
Georgia confirmed this week that Ray Guy Award finalist Brett Thorson suffered a season-ending knee injury in the SEC Championship game. What’s Georgia’s top backup option? Kirby Smart shared what he was thinking this week even though kicker Charlie Ham came in for a fake punt in Atlanta.
Smart indicated that Drew Miller — who signed in the 2024 class with a lot of fanfare and was rated the No. 1 punter in the nation for 247Sports, On3 and their respective industry composites — would be the next man up. Chris Sailer Kicking and Kohl’s Kicking, the industry standards in ranking specialists, also both named him first-team All-American after his senior season.
“He would be our punter, and we think he’s really talented, and he does a great job, and he’s worked really hard to get the opportunity,” Smart said of Miller. “He punts every day in practice and does a tremendous job. He’s a very highly recruited kid who we’ve got a lot of confidence in.”
MaxPreps.com also named him to its All-American first team for the third year in a row for his class.
As far as playing their position goes, the only players UGA signed in the last class with that same resume were the five-stars like cornerback Ellis Robinson IV, safety KJ Bolden and linebacker Justin Williams.
While Australian punters are all the rage, Miller’s backstory from the cornfields of Iowa serves Georgia well here.
Miller’s football background features highlights on the offensive side, as a dual-threat quarterback for Mediapolis High School.
The former three-star prospect threw for 1,556 yards and 13 scores in his senior season as a first-year starter. He also used his 4.7 speed in the 40-yard dash to rack up 8.1 yards per carry.
And then there’s his punting ability.
In his senior year, Miller recorded these stats:
- 49.5-yard gross punt average
- 47.3-yard net average
- 56.7% of his punts landed inside the 20
- 40% of his punts landed inside the 10
- Total return yards allowed: 5
Before he got to UGA, he frequently showcased his leg on his social media.
It was a unique dynamic being the punter and the quarterback, especially on what he described as a “run-heavy team.”
“It was a lot of fun,” Miller said last November. “It was pretty tiring. Having to punt or kick after playing an offensive drive, thought it was a lot of fun.”
His high school unit gave up just 5 total return yards his senior year, which sounds a lot like what Georgia has been doing the past two years with Thorson.
“I just put our gunners and special-teams coverage in the best position possible,” he said last fall. “I just hit the ball. I tell them where I’m putting it and I just give as much hang time for them as possible and try to let them succeed in their job.”
The 6-foot-2, 210-pounder didn’t start at QB until his senior year but played defensive end before that. When he camped at UGA, the staff recorded him playing catch with a coach.
“They wanted to see my throwing ability and catching and stuff like that,” Miller said.
The Mediapolis High product could throw the ball about 60 yards downfield and boom his punts 70 yards consistently — when not trying to create as much hang time as possible.
With Thorson out for the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, it’s likely that Georgia fans will soon get to see the former top-rated punter prospect in action.
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