What Makes A Placekicker Special?

Well...how about starting with these numbers for the 2025 season?

--25 / 29 on field goals (55 long)

--45 / 45 on PAT's

--68 touchbacks on 81 kickoffs

--120 points scored

Those shiny stats are just part of the junior year resume of Aidan Birr, #33 for the White snd Gold--good enough to earn him All- ACC and third team All- American status in 2025.

Just as with other sports, the question is sometimes more about the circumstances than the cold stats per se.

Check and check. Twice last year Birr came through in the clutch–big time. On both occasions, his stellar performance enabled the Jackets to continue their early- season win streak . The first occasion against Clemson, in game #3, by hitting the game winner from 55 yards as time elapsed. Then two weeks later he converted again, this time at Wake Forest, again with the clock ticking down, this time to send the game into overtime. Tech went on to win that game 30-29.

Wesley Wells, kicker extraordinare for Tech in 2018, was present to sees Birr's kick to win the Clemson game at the buzzer at Bobby Dodd Stadium in mid- September 2025.

Wells had this to say regsrding Birr's performance.

"I was really happy for him. That game- winner against Clemson was a special moments, and reflected on the season he had".

Wells' assessment is on point. Birr had a great game to go with his fine season , and his moxie was as impressive as are his kicking skills.

As any football fan knows, the placekicker holds a unique role on a football team. He's not out there much, and he's not meant to participate in the basic blocking and tackling of a football game. And yet he is responsible for about 35- 40% of all points his team will score in a given season– many of them at critical junctures.

As Adam Vinatieri said of his kicking craft," We're not out there much. Our teammates build a cake and every now and then we get to.put icing in it".

A kicker like Birr supplies a lot of icing. He also changes the playcallers' mindset when approaching " field goal territory" with an offense facing a 3rd or 4th down.

Armed with a kicker whose got range and accuracy, the play book has more available options, especially if said kicker is a known high-pressure performer.

Brent Key has that advantage on his roster for 2026. It's a big deal.

Birr is unlikely to be perfect of course. ( The last kicker to do that was Wells himself in 2018, although on far fewer field goal kicks - 9/9). Even so, Tech teammates, coaches and fans are glad Aidan Birr is on board . His presence adds much to Tech's prospects of reaching double-digit wins for the first time in over since 2014 unddr Paul Johnson.

Patrick Conarro

RamblinSports