THE FLATS – Punter Pressley Harvin III (Alcolu, S.C./Sumter) officially became the 22nd consensus All-American in Georgia Tech history when he received first-team recognition on the Sporting News and American Football Writers Association (FWAA) all-America teams on Wednesday.
The NCAA recognizes consensus All-Americans as players that are receive first-team honors on the majority of its officially recognized all-America teams. The NCAA currently recognizes the Associated Press (AP), American Football Coaches Association (AFCA), FWAA, Sporting News and Walter Camp as its officially recognized all-America selectors. In addition to being named to the FWAA’s and Sporting News’ first teams, Harvin was tabbed first-team All-America by the AP last week.
Harvin is Georgia Tech’s first consensus All-American since Calvin Johnson in 2006.
The Alcolu, S.C. native leads the nation with a 48.0-yard punting average this season. To put his whopping 48.0-yard average into perspective, the margin between Harvin’s average and the third-best average in the nation (46.7 – Washington State’s Oscar Draguicevich) is the same as the margin between Draguicevich and the nation’s eighth-best average (45.4 – San Diego State’s Tanner Kuljian).
In addition to the 48.0-yard average, 49% of Harvin’s 45 punts this season traveled 50 or more yards, 47% were fair caught, 40% were downed inside the opponent’s 20 yard line and only 17% were returned. Thanks in large part to those gaudy numbers, Georgia Tech ranks second nationally as a team in net punting (44.6-yard average).
Harvin averaged at least 51 yards per punt three times in nine games this season (51.2 vs. UCF on Sept. 19, 51.0 at Boston College on Oct. 24 and 51.0 vs. Pitt on Dec. 10). He was named the Ray Guy Award National Punter of the Week twice and one of the award’s “Ray’s 4” recipients (honoring the nation’s four best punters each week) five times. Since the beginning of the 2019 season, he is the only punter in the nation that has had a net punting average of 50 yards in three different games (min. four punts), including twice this season – vs. UCF and at Boston College.
Harvin also currently holds a new Atlantic Coast Conference single-season record for punting average (prev.: 47.8 – North Carolina’s Brian Schmitz, 1999). His 48.0-yard average shattered Georgia Tech’s single-season school record of 45.6 yards, previously set by Rodney Williams in 1997.
One of three finalists for the 2020 Ray Guy Award (awarded to college football’s top punter), Harvin was also named first-team all-America by ESPN and The Athletic.
He was also a landslide selection as first-team all-ACC, receiving 161 total points in all-conference balloting. Only three student-athletes in the entire league received more points than Harvin – Clemson quarterback and ACC Player of the Year Trevor Lawrence, Clemson wide receiver Amari Rodgers and North Carolina wide receiver Dyami Brown. Harvin’s 161 total points in all-ACC voting were 66 more than second-team punter Lou Hedley of Miami (Fla.), who is also one of the three finalists for the 2020 Ray Guy Award (Georgia’s Jake Camarda rounds out the three Ray Guy finalists).
Should Harvin be named first-team all-America by the AFCA (Thursday) and Walter Camp (Jan. 7), he will become only the third unanimous All-American in Georgia Tech history, joining Johnson (2006) and Ken Swilling (1990).
GEORGIA TECH’S CONSENSUS ALL-AMERICANS
1917 – Everett Strupper, B
1918 – Ashel Day, C
1918 – Bill Fincher, E
1918 – Joe Guyon, T
1920 – Bill Fincher, E
1928 – Peter Pund, C
1942 – Harvey Hardy, G
1944 – Phil Tinsley, E
1946 – Paul Duke, C
1947 – Bob Davis, T
1952 – Hal Miller, T
1953 – Larry Morris, C
1959 – Maxie Baughan, C
1966 – Jim Breland, C
1970 – Rock Pedroni, DT
1973 – Randy Rhino, DB
1990 – Ken Swilling, DB
1998 – Craig Page, C
1999 – Joe Hamilton, QB
2000 – Chris Brown, OL
2006 – Calvin Johnson, WR
2020 – Pressley Harvin III, P
Alexander-Tharpe Fund
The Alexander-Tharpe Fund is the fundraising arm of Georgia Tech athletics, providing scholarship, operations and facilities support for Georgia Tech’s 400-plus student-athletes. Be a part of developing Georgia Tech’s Everyday Champions and helping the Yellow Jackets compete for championships at the highest levels of college athletics by supporting the A-T Fund’s Annual Athletic Scholarship Fund, which directly provides scholarships for Georgia Tech student-athletes, and the Support The Swarm Fund, created to give fans an opportunity to help Georgia Tech athletics maintain its recent momentum through the financial challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic! To learn more about supporting the Yellow Jackets, visit atfund.org.
For the latest information on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, follow us on Twitter (@GTAthletics), Facebook, Instagram or visit us at www.ramblinwreck.com.
