It’s been nearly 16 months since it was announced that Georgia Tech would travel to Ireland to face Florida State in the 2024 Aer Lingus College Football Classic. Hardly a day has passed since that Tech punter David Shanahan hasn’t had to discuss the Yellow Jackets’ trip to his homeland.
“He’s answered a lot of questions about that,” Tech long snapper Henry Freer grinned.
Shanahan, from Castleisland, Ireland, about 175 miles southwest of Dublin, has less than a month now to talk about the Aug. 24 matchup. The senior joked he tends to go into autopilot in his responses to queries about the game and the travel back to Ireland. He also has had to put his father in charge of ticket requests because, “I got people popping up out of the woodworks that I haven’t spoken to in 10 years looking for tickets. I’m getting hit up a lot.”
That doesn’t mean his excitement to play in front of his family (who have never seen him play in-person all at the same time together) has waned. He said he also is longing for a good Irish breakfast, so much so he has been working with team nutritionist Erin Wesolowski to make sure that the Jackets are fed with the classic dish.
“You don’t really get it over here,” Shanahan explained. “Fado’s in Midtown, they do it pretty well. But that’s definitely something I’m looking forward to.”
As for his play on the field, Shanahan is looking to end his Tech career on a high note after a 2023 season that was an adjustment of sorts. He punted 28 fewer times in 2022 and saw his average kick drop from 43.45 yards per punt to 42.82.
Shanahan said he doesn’t put too much stock in the statistics and is confident his consistency will improve in his fourth full season kicking. After all, he had little to no experience punting a football before moving to America.
“He’s gotta hit that target spot just a little bit more. Whether it’s the numbers or whether it’s the hash or whatever it is, he’s just gotta work on hitting that target spot a little more consistent,” Tech associate head coach for special teams Ricky Brumfield said. “But he did a really good job getting of the ball, not holding it, not having a long get-off time.
“Saturday (during practice) he was booming ‘em. It was 50-plus yard punts, and it was out there to the numbers. That gives us time to get down there and cover.”
Shanahan is part of a Tech special-teams unit that should be a strength for the Jackets in 2024. Not only are he, Freer and Brumfield back, but so is kicker Aidan Birr, who was 17-for-19 on field-goal tries and 37-of-38 on extra-point attempts after taking over the job for former Tech kicker Gavin Stewart early in the 2023 season.
Brumfield does need to anoint a new punt returner because of the departure of Dominick Blaylock. He said cornerback Rodney Shelley and wide receivers Malik Rutherford and Bailey Stockton are battling for that spot.
Other special-teams positions are up for grabs, too, whether that be in kick protection or on return units. Brumfield always is assessing who may be able to help in that regard.
“When it’s team work and it’s team run and you actually see somebody fitting up and setting the edge and you see somebody actually coming in and putting their face in there making a tackle, that sets them apart,” Brumfield said. “Somebody may look good running doing the drills. You call it underwear Olympics when they’re out there working in the summer and all that other stuff like that. They look good during that, but we gotta see what they do during team (drills).
“Once the live team things come in, now I see, ‘Oh, OK, he can tackle, he can tackle in space, he’s more of a box tackler, he can run and tackle.’ Then I start seeing who can do what once we do all of these team reps, offense against defense.”
King, Haynes on Maxwell Award watch list
Tech quarterback Haynes King and running back Jamal Haynes are among 80 players on the watch list for the 2024 Maxwell Award, which has been presented to college football’s player of the year since 1937.
Tech is one of 17 teams with multiple representatives on the Maxwell Award watch list.
King accounted for 3,729 yards of total offense (2,842 passing, 737 rushing) and 37 touchdowns (27 passing, 10 rushing) in his first season as the Yellow Jackets’ starting quarterback in 2023. He was one of only two Power Five conference players with at least 2,800 passing yards, 700 rushing yards, 25 touchdown passes and 10 touchdown runs in 2023.
He became the fourth ACC player since 2000 to reach those plateaus in a single season, joining Clemson’s Deshaun Watson (2015), Louisville’s Lamar Jackson (2016 and 2017) and Virginia Tech’s Jerod Evans (2016).
Haynes, who made the switch from wide receiver to running back during Tech’s preseason camp in 2023, became the Jackets’ first 1,000-yard rusher in five seasons when he ran for 1,059 yards. He capped four 100-yard games with a career-high 128 en route to being named MVP of the Jackets’ 30-17 win over Central Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl.
In addition to his 1,059 rushing yards, Haynes also caught 20 passes for 151 yards and returned two kickoffs for 47 yards, totaling 1,257 all-purpose yards and earning all-ACC recognition as a running back and as an all-purpose performer.
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