UPDATE

Blankenship posted this to Twitter on Thursday night.

An open letter to #DawgNation, and to anybody else who has felt affected by recent events and news. #GoDawgs #StriveForGreatness pic.twitter.com/VRPiRVNkAp — Rodrigo Blankenship (@RodTheKicker3) January 6, 2017





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Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s decision not to give redshirt freshman kicker Rodrigo Blankenship a scholarship for the spring semester has rankled Blankenship’s parents. And it’s rankled them so much so that they’ve released a statement regarding the coach’s decision.

Blankenship’s father released an 18-paragraph statement about the decision to the Macon Telegraph signed “Kicker’s Dad and Kicker’s Mom.” In it, Ken Blankenship takes issue with an alleged claim by Smart that he doesn’t put players on scholarship during the middle of the season despite the fact that Georgia could be adding players to replace those who are leaving the program.

Per the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Rodrigo and Ken were informed of Smart’s decision in a meeting on Monday.

From the statement, which you can read in full at the Telegraph.

That means the newbies will be cashing those weekly $200 maintenance checks (not to mention the free housing, tuition, books, etc.) while our son uses his debit card for weekend meals and incidentals; back home in Marietta there’s a dad who has to keep his son’s checking account balance on the plus side. Yes, our son is allowed to participate at the training table during the week —a godsend when meal plan costs are computed. Our only conclusion, based on Coach Smart’s obvious pre-meeting preparation with intent to tear down our son’s case for a scholarship and during the meeting his dismissive categorization of our son’s achievements, is that there has never been a consideration for our son to receive a scholarship. We have to give Coach Smart credit where credit is due: just like a business manager refusing to give a raise to an employee during a sit-down meeting, he was extremely well-prepared with his list of grievances. At least employees receive a salary; our son is an unpaid employee who is actually paying his employer (that would be the University of Georgia) for the privilege of working for it. Aren’t there any alumni out there just a little bit peeved over this scenario, given Rodrigo’s apparent popularity?

Rodrigo Blankenship, who hasn’t been on scholarship in his two seasons at Georgia, was 14-18 on field goal attempts in 2016 and 26-26 on PATs. He famously wore his helmet for a postgame interview after he kicked the winning field goal vs. Kentucky.

Smart had previously been noncommittal about his kicker’s scholarship status. Blankenship’s father told the AJC earlier in the fall his son may have to transfer because of financial reasons if he didn’t get a scholarship. Ken said in November he’s been using his retirement fund to help pay for Rodrigo’s expenses and the spring semester is the last semester he can afford. And he ended his statement wishing Smart would have been direct with them in the meeting.

If Coach Smart had simply said, whether truthfully or not, that it was a numbers issue, it would have been much better than the tearing-down tactic with our son sitting there beside us. What did he do for you ON THE FIELD, Coach Smart? For us, there exist no acceptable rationalizations or explanations for denying our son what he has deservedly earned: an athletic scholarship to continue playing football at the University of Georgia.

For more Georgia news, visit UGASports.com.

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Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!

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