Specialists Path-Drew Butler

How does the only kicker in the College Football Hall of Fame have a son that becomes the best college punter in the country?

Drew Butler’s path should have led him to be the next great kicker at the University of Georgia, but instead he exploded onto the College Football world last year by winning the Ray Guy Award for the nation’s best punter.

Drew’s father, Kevin, was a star field goal kicker at the University of Georgia and had a successful career for the Chicago Bears and Arizona Cardinals. During Kevin’s time with the Bears, head coach Mike Ditka hired a kicking consultant named Gary Zauner to help the Bears’ kicking specialists. Kevin didn’t know this at the time but a mere 25 years later he would hire Coach Zauner to train his son as a punter.

As Coach Zauner’s assistant since January of 2009 I was able to see Coach Zauner train College and NFL Free Agent Kicking Specialists and take them to a different level. His transformation of Drew Butler was one I saw firsthand and I believe to be one of his most impressive coaching jobs.

This is Drew Butler On a Specialists Path.

Drew was exposed to the kicking game at a young age with his father being in the NFL, which sparked some interest in the kicking.

“Growing up with my dad playing professional football as a kicker, I was always with him when he was practicing and had natural ability, you could say”, Drew said.

“I learned solid fundamentals and technique from him at a young age, and it translated well when I decided to play in high school.”

Even with having a famous father as a kicker, Drew actually was more interested in other sports growing up and I got a late start as a kicking specialist.

“I first decided to be a kicker and punter the summer before my sophomore year in high school”, Drew said. “I was a golfer and soccer player before I played football, and we were a brand new high school.”

“In our first year, the team had lost a few games due to missed extra points and short field goals. That’s when I decided that I could help the team because I could always make an extra point. From that point, one thing led to another, and here I am today.”

Drew didn’t always dream of living up to his father’s legacy and actually wanted to make his living in another professional sport.

“Playing in high school, I just wanted to help my team win games”, Drew said. “I didn’t really have a vision. I wanted to be a professional golfer.”

Like most kicking specialists', Drew started to see some success and that’s when he really started to sharpen his craft. During this process he discovered that he was more of a natural punter than kicker.

“As I got older, along with our entire football team, we started getting better and winning games”, Drew said.” After my junior year I started receiving college interest. That’s when it hit me that I could have a future punting a football, and I loved that idea. So I really bought into punting, and dedicated myself to playing in college."

After reaching his goals in high school, he received a scholarship to punt at the University of Georgia, which he described as “a dream come true”.

Drew’s road was not always a straight one as he didn’t make a smooth transition from college and wasn’t able to see the field right away.

“The toughest moment I have had was not playing my first two years in college”, Drew said.” I lost the competition to start my freshman year to Brian Mimbs, a great punter for UGA and still a good friend of mine.”

“I learned a lot about myself and about the game being able to watch Brian perform for two seasons, but it was not easy. I doubted myself and my ability, I was not performing consistently, and I was not proving to the coaching staff that I could be the next guy in line.”
“I had to re assess my goals and really focus on what I wanted to accomplish while I was at Georgia. That is how I responded to my adversity.”

After the 2008 season Brian Mimbs was set to graduate and the punting job was wide open for Drew, but he was still unsure of himself and his ability. This is when his father saw that Coach Zauner was giving private kicking and punting lessons out in Arizona. So in the winter of 2008 he decided it would be a great idea to get an extra set of eyes on Drew and have him come out to Arizona for private lessons.

I was assisting Coach Zauner with his video and his combines during the time Drew came to Arizona and I was able to witness the private lessons. During the lessons I watched him really learn the proper technique through the on the field coaching and especially the video review. Check out more on Coach Zauner and see Kevin Butler's workout on Coach Zauner's website http://www.coachzauner.com/ .

He had some mechanical issues that were costing him consistency and distance. After three days Drew left Arizona with a good sense of what he needed to work on. Understanding the technique is one thing but making the technique become natural through repetition is another.

Over the next 4 or 5 months Drew went home and worked on the drills so that he could continue to improve. After performing well during Spring Practice, Drew came to Coach Zauner’s Pro Development Camp in Minnesota. He entered the 2009 season confident after all the hard work he had done over the offseason.

Drew had a fantastic season that ended in winning the Ray Guy, but even after all his success he is mature enough to attribute most of his accolades to his punting unit and not just himself.
“My proudest moment of my career so far is being a part of the number 1 punt team in the nation last year”, Drew said. “Each and every week we dedicated ourselves to being the best we could be and it really paid off. We led the nation in net and gross punting, which was a huge testament to each guy on the unit.”

Drew knows that it will be tough to deal with the expectations of being the Ray Guy Award winner as a sophomore, but he has already had to deal with the expectations of being the son of Kevin Butler.

“Being able to have the opportunity to live up to the expectation of being my Dad’s son has been an honor”, Drew said. “My Dad is my dad, and I can’t change that. I don’t want to change that. I love him and he is my best friend.”

“I embrace the challenge and work hard with that in mind because I know that if I accomplish half of the things he did, I will be in good shape. He has helped me tremendously and I am really fortunate to have him in my life.”

Drew is already on track to live up to his father’s legacy at Georgia and if he keeps this pace up than maybe his father’s former NFL team, the Bears, might be looking for a punter in a few years as Brad Maynard is 36 years old and is entering his 14th season in the NFL.
For right now though Drew is just focused on this year at Georgia.

“My goals for this season are more specific and fine tuned than 2009”, Drew said.” “Having the year that our punt team had last year, most would think it would be hard to reassess our goals; but after reviewing what we can get better at, there is still a lot of work to do.”

“My goal is to be consistent and perform so the coaches can depend on me. I want to be the leader of Georgia’s special teams and our punt team. I want to be a valuable weapon for the defense, give our coverage team great opportunities to makes plays and limit return yards, and not allow our punt team to take a step backwards from last year. We need to keep moving forward. If we achieve all of our goals, we will.”

After getting to know Drew and seeing his progress over the past year I am just as impressed with his maturity as I am his talent. If anyone could repeat winning the Ray Guy Award I think he is the right “guy” for the job!

Visit: www.jameswilhoitkickingcoach.com

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