Austin Hardin is 5-foot-11, 200 pounds, squats twice that weight and maxed out benching 290 pounds last year. He said his 40-yard dash clocks in at 4.4 seconds. He regularly takes snaps for Atlanta Marist High as a corner, a strong safety or, depending on the sugar content of his coach’s breakfast cereal, a halfback.
And he’s rated the nation’s No. 9 kicker by Rivals.com.
“I guess I’m not your typical kicker,” said Hardin, a Florida oral commit.
Hardin, who will be in Gainesville for the Alabama game this weekend, was hardly noticed before his junior year, as he warmed the bench behind Justin Moore, who is now at Georgia Tech. Then, Hardin kicked a textbook, arching field goal from 59 yards out against rival Decatur (Ga.) Southwest DeKalb last fall.
“They wouldn’t send the kicker out to try this, would they?” a GPBSports announcer inquired during the locally broadcast game.
“Nah, it’s too far for a field goal,” the other booth man said.
Marist won, 17-14, fans stormed the field, and Hardin was soon swarmed with invitations to universities across the country.
He began prioritizing which schools he would visit in the spring. Florida was at the top of his list, although not first on the schedule.
“That was the one camp that we had really marked off, like, ‘OK, this is the one camp we’re going to,’ even though I had a whole summer filled up with coaches wanting me to come (visit),” he said of UF.
Hardin’s camp season started at Ole Miss. In May, Derek Dooley offered him at Tennessee, then Gene Chizik at Auburn. The calendar days narrowed down until Hardin’s anticipated visit to Florida, followed by a stop at Virginia Tech.
“At Florida, I would’ve been surprised if I didn’t pick up the offer,” he said. “Like, (two) other [Southeastern Conference] schools had just offered me, so it was kind of what I was waiting for. So they pulled me out, about the second day of camp, and were like, ‘Alright, let’s cut to the chase: You’re the guy we want.’”
Soon after, he went on an unofficial visit to Gainesville and talked with coach Will Muschamp. Hardin never made the Virginia Tech visit. He committed to UF on the spot.
In Marist practice, Hardin does the things all the big boys do — he hits, he sprints, he scrimmages. Most high school kickers stick around for about 20 minutes of practice, like Hardin’s little brother, Luke, who kicks for another Atlanta school. Hardin thus has arguably the least-fresh — yet the best — legs in high school football, which presents a separate challenge to take on at Florida.
“I’m kind of excited to see what it’ll be like to just be a kicker,” he said. “But at the same time it’s kind of sad because I really do like hitting and tackling and stuff. On kickoffs, when I’m not hitting it in the end zone, I’ll probably be running downfield for tackles.”
Most would think that kickers don’t pose a tackling threat. But then again, Hardin has never been a typical kicker.
Oral commitments are non-binding until a national letter of intent is signed on or after National Signing Day on Feb. 1, 2012.
