Georgia Tech punter Pressley Harvin’s superior season was acknowledged Tuesday as he was named a first-team All-ACC selection. Entering the bowl season, Harvin not only leads the conference in punting average but FBS as well.
Harvin was the only Yellow Jackets player selected to the all-conference team, although senior linebacker David Curry and freshman running back Jahmyr Gibbs earned honorable-mention recognition.
The All-ACC teams were chosen by a vote of a select 49-member media panel and the league’s 15 head coaches.
Harvin is Tech’s first first-team All-ACC selection since guard Parker Braun in 2018. It’s Harvin’s second All-ACC selection after he was a second-team pick in 2018. Harvin also was named first-team All-ACC by the Associated Press on Monday.
Harvin’s 48.0 yards-per-punt average broke the ACC’s single-season record, previously held by North Carolina’s Ryan Schmitz (1999, 47.8 yards), as well as the Tech school record (Rodney Williams, 1997, 45.6 yards). Tech ranks second in net punting in FBS at 44.6 yards, behind only Miami at 45 yards. Both have outdone the ACC’s net punting record, set in 1976 by N.C. State (43.9 yards), although the Hurricanes have a bowl game to play.
Harvin’s specialty was high-hanging punts that gave Jackets gunners time to race downfield and force fair catches or limit returns. Of Harvin’s 45 punts, only eight were returned with the longest at 18 yards. Of the remaining 37, 21 were fair caught. He controlled his distance well enough to keep all but three punts out of the end zone for touchbacks. Twenty-two of his punts traveled 50 yards or more.
Harvin, who Monday announced his plans to forgo his second senior season and pursue an NFL career, also was included Tuesday among the three finalists for the Ray Guy Award for the nation’s top punter. The others are Jake Camarda of Georgia and Lou Hedley of Miami.
A stunning playmaker, Gibbs averaged 138.3 all-purpose yards in seven games, which ranks fourth in the ACC. His candidacy for conference honors undoubtedly was hampered by his missing three games, including the final two because of a hamstring injury.
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