Kicker Aidan Birr Opens 2024 Season With Dramatic Flair

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Georgia Tech might have a new offensive weapon and it’s the most nerve-racking position of them all. Their field-goal kicker. 

Tough Spot for Birr

Redshirt sophomore Aidan Birr made a 44-yard game-winning field goal as time expired to down No. 10 Florida State (0-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) 24-21 in Dublin, Ireland, to give the Yellow Jackets (1-0, 1-0 ACC) a win in the first game of the year. Even though it was a “neutral-site game” the Florida State crowd was alive and bellowing the “FSU war chant” and exhibiting the famous tomahawk chop motion.

Birr, who missed from 51-yards to begin the third quarter remained calm and focused on the task at hand.

“(Birr) came up to me and said I don’t care where the balls at just put it down and I’m gonna make it,” Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key said after the game.

There is nothing like having all the pressure of the game on your shoulders. Not to mention that your previous field goal attempt was a miss.

When the ball was kicked, on camera, there was a moment when the pigskin was rising to its peak when it was even with the left upright and could have gone either way. Fortunately for Tech fans, the ball kept just straight enough to go through and the Yellow Jackets won the game.

Freshman Phenom

Last season, as a redshirt freshman Birr went 17-of-19 on his field-goal attempts with his longest made being from 48 yards out in a 30-16 win over Wake Forest. Last year he went through a hot streak of making 11 straight, before the streak was snapped against the Georgia Bulldogs on a 49-yard attempt.

Birr will no doubt have to get better from close to 50 and maybe beyond if he wants to be an even greater weapon for the Yellow Jackets, but if he can stay consistent, Key should have all the confidence putting Birr in pressure situations.

“I brought the guys together yesterday and said this game is going to come down to a field goal,” Key said, “Total confidence in Aidan Birr, what a football player he is.”

There is no greater compliment for a kicker than to be labeled a football player. 

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If Birr can continue that type of consistency he displayed all last season and his knack for drama, then he should be a weapon for Georgia Tech. A weapon that is often overlooked in the game of football.