Shanahan, a Castle Island native and Georgia Tech punter, is scheduled to play against Florida State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in August.
It may be hard to imagine the two-time GAA Player of the Year award and being part of an American football team wearing shoulder pads and a crash helmet, but someone with some knowledge of the gridiron game Mr. Kelly, who has , believes Clifford will do the same. He handles pork rinds as deftly as O'Neill's.
David Shanahan, a former Kerry underage football player and current punter for the Georgie Tech University football team, said Clifford, and perhaps one or two of his current Kerry team-mates, had success in American football. I have little doubt that he could, but not as a player. He's a quarterback, a running back, a tight end, but of course he can also be a punter or kicker.
Shanahan is a punter for the Yellow Jackets. He is the guy who receives the ball from the line of scrimmage and punts it out of his hands high and long down the field to set up the receiving opposing team as far back as possible for the initial offensive drive.
A kicker's job is a little different. He starts and restarts games with kicks from the ground and also kicks field goal attempts.
When asked if David Clifford has the skill set to be an American football punter or kicker, Shanahan has no doubts.
“Absolutely. I think he probably has more of a punter's physique than a kicker, he's big and tall. Yeah, sure, with 18 months to two years of proper training, you can't go wrong. You can do it without it.
“And maybe Seanie O'Shea is another one. I definitely look forward to his chances as a kicker. They're obviously very good ball strikers, so they definitely have potential. There will be.”
Shanahan is the first Irish man to earn a full scholarship to play college football in the United States. After he went to Australia to join Pro Kick's training program when he was 18 years old, Georgia Tech attacked the Castle Island man and brought him to Atlanta.
After great freshman, sophomore and junior seasons with the Yellow Jackets, Shanahan is looking forward to his senior year in college. Over the past three seasons, he has amassed an impressive 179 punts for 7,632 yards, with his longest punt being 71 yards. Last season, he was also named a finalist for the Ray Guy Award, which recognizes the best punter in college football.
David Shanahan is a punter for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets American football team
If you think it's unlikely that Clifford or O'Shea would look away from a possible career in another National Football League, think again. Three Gaelic footballers – Rory Beggan, Charlie Smith and Mark Jackson – and former Connacht rugby player Dollar Leader are currently looking to secure NFL contracts.
Began, Smith, Jackson – goalkeepers for Monaghan, Down and Wicklow respectively – and Reeder have been in America to try out as American football kickers in recent weeks with the aim of securing lucrative contracts with NFL franchises. Shanahan believes it is possible to succeed, but he added that it would be very difficult.
“It's definitely possible. From my perspective, I think kicks are more effective than punts, especially for goalies. I mean, they're all goalies, so it makes a lot of sense. ” said the Castle Island native.
“It's actually a very similar ball-striking motion, but at the same time there are only 32 kicker jobs in the NFL and there are a lot of really good players coming out of college every year, but it's definitely possible. “I think every NFL team is getting an extra practice squad spot as a varsity player, so if he can take advantage of that and get another year of development and coaching, I think he has as good a chance as anyone if he works hard.''
David Shanahan and some of his Georgia Tech teammates at Castleisland Desmonds GAA ground, where David played Gaelic football as a teenager.
Shanahan is now well accustomed to life as a college football player – he is in his third year on a four-year scholarship at Georgia Tech – but two things stand out from his own experience: It is difficult for a football player to feel that there is some possibility of transitioning to American football.
“There are probably two things that I've found the most difficult to adjust to. The first one is probably the sheer size of college football here. I knew about that before I went over there. I was watching the games, I was reading the books, but once you get here you really have to adapt. Playing in front of so many fans, the whole social media aspect, everything. It was something that took some getting used to.
“And the second thing is, obviously, if you're playing Gaelic football and you're in the game and you have bad possession, you can get the ball back and get it back. But the punter Or if you're a kicker, you might only take three or four shots a game to do your job, and if you miss, that's it. And there's very little room to mess up. So, let's be honest. The hardest thing to adjust to was probably the one-shot nature of punters in college football. You do it once and either you did your job or you didn't.”
Georgia Tech punter David Shanahan
Shanahan himself does not qualify for the international roster. This is because international player slots are only given to players with up to two years of American football experience. Needless to say, Kerryman would want to go to the NFL through the draft system, but with only one year left at Georgia Tech, he's focused on his senior year at Atlanta City College. . He's quite talented.
“I just take it one day at a time, so I really focus on that. We're in the middle of spring ball this year, and then we move on to summer training and ball camp. To be honest, I'm only going to do it this season. I'm focused on that, and I don't know what will happen after that, but if I do what I want to do this season, I should be in a good position.
“When I started playing college football, I think I learned quickly that you can't think too far ahead, that everything changes every year. I mean, every year, we had a completely different team, a lot of different coaches. Freshman year My approach since then has been one game at a time, one kick at a time, and I'm still here,'' he says, outlining some of the differences and challenges faced.
“One of the biggest things here is that we have so many coaches. When you play football in Ireland, even with Kerry, you'll only have four or five at most. We have 30 coaches. A lot of our coaches are probably taken a little more seriously here than they are at home because they've grown up with it and it's probably their life.
“When I first came, I didn't know any of the terminology or the structure, but since I use it every day, I pick it up quickly. Indeed, after the first season, I felt quite accustomed to it.”
David Shanahan (second from left) and several Georgie Tech teammates at Aviva Stadium, host of the 2024 Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
Shanahan played for Kelly's U-17 team in 2017, won a Munster championship medal, and earned a four-year scholarship to Georgia Tech. Three years later, Georgia Tech faced Florida State in August. The match will be played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Aer Lingus College Football Classic. Aviva's capacity, he said, is 51,700, just shy of his 55,000 capacity at Bobby Dodd Stadium, where the Yellow Jackets play in front of a near-full and raucous crowd every game.
“It's class, and when you play in front of a big stadium, that never gets old,” Shanahan says. “I wouldn't say you get used to it, but you know what happens. The first few games you get a little bit taken over by the crowd, but as you keep playing, and I've been playing for three years now, , you know how to approach it. You have to take your time in the warm-up and enjoy the experience for what it is, and once the match starts you're less focused on the crowd. I'm not saying you don't notice. But a lot of times it just becomes white noise.”
*Tickets for the 2024 Aer Lingus College Football Classic between Georgia Tech and Florida State University, to be held at Dublin's Aviva Stadium on August 24th, are now available at https://www.ticketmaster.ie/aer-lingus On sale at -college-football-classic. -ticket
The game will see Georgia Tech return to Dublin for the first time since 2016, and will be the first game in Ireland for Florida State, the 2023 Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) state champion. The match will kick off at 5pm local time at Aviva Stadium.
