Blair Walsh will leave big shoes to fill at Georgia’s placekicking position when he graduates after the 2011 season, but Mark Richt has already lined up what looks like a capable successor in Marshall Morgan (6’3", 195) from Miami.
Some recruiting services don’t bother to rate specialists at all, so for Morgan to get three stars from both Rivals and Scout is a bit of an achievement; he was one of only three kickers on the ESPN 150 watch list for 2012 and received offers from Florida, Florida State and Virginia Tech. As Dawgsports tells us, Morgan hit 15 of 16 field goals last season, with a long of 53 yards, and was true on all but one of his 64 extra-point attempts. He also put 98 percent of his kickoffs in the end zone. Adding to his list of positives is an ability to fill in at punter if necessary — he averaged 43.8 yards per punt last year.
Dawgsports also relates that Morgan trains at BIGfoot Kicking in Plantation, Fla., which also produced Auburn’s Wes Byrum and Michigan State’s Brett Swenson. So there’s little reason to think Morgan won’t be ready to take the field the minute he sets foot on campus next summer.