Georgia enters 2026 with one part of special teams settled and two of the most important jobs still open. Peyton Woodring is back at kicker for his fourth season, but the punter and long snapper spots now belong to a new pair of names until they prove otherwise.
That is why Georgia Football is drawing attention now, just before the season, because the answer at kicker is already known while the answer at punter and long snapper is not. Woodring gave Georgia stability last season, making 17 of 19 field goals and not missing an extra point, then earning an All-SEC second-team nod and a third trip to the Lou Groza semifinalist list. In a program that has treated special teams as a priority under Kirby Smart, that kind of return matters.
The harder part is the change around him. Georgia must replace Brett Thorson, who finished 2025 as the Ray Guy Award winner, and Beau Gardner, who ended the year as the nation’s top long snapper. Those are not ordinary departures. Georgia has spent years pointing to the standard set by punters such as Drew Butler and Jake Camarda, and the next pair will be measured against that history from the first snap of the season.
Right now, the likely answers are Drew Miller at punter and Will Snellings at long snapper. Miller already showed what he can do in the 2025 opener, when he punted six times against Marshall, averaged 48 yards a kick and had a long of 54 yards. Snellings has been the backup long snapper for three years and got work in that same opener, which gives Georgia at least a little familiarity in a spot that often gets noticed only when something goes wrong.
Even so, the transition is not the same at both positions. Miller has one game of notable college work to point to, and Snellings has spent three years behind the starter rather than as the starter himself. Freshman Wade Register is the main challenger at punter and got spring reps, while freshman Colton Dermer offers another option at long snapper. That leaves Georgia with competition, but not certainty, in the two places where one bad snap or one short kick can change field position in a hurry.
Woodring gives Georgia a cushion the other two jobs do not. The kicking game already has a proven answer, and that lowers the margin for the rest of the unit. The question now is not whether Georgia has special teams talent. It is whether Miller and Snellings can hold the jobs once the season begins, and whether the transition from award winners to first-time starters can be made cleanly enough for Georgia to keep the edge it has built there.
