ATHENS — Considering the remarks he has made to date about Georgia’s kicking game, coach Kirby Smart was throwing relative bouquets after the Bulldogs’ first scrimmage of the spring on Saturday.

“We got it snapped, held and off,” Smart said after the long scrimmage, which was attended by players’ families and UGA football lettermen. “That was the first goal for the field-goal team. We’ve got to get it through the uprights now.”

Georgia conducted a controlled scrimmage at Sanford Stadium and therefore had contested placement kicks for the first time all spring.

They also “went live” with punts, punt returns, kickoffs and kickoff returns. And even in extremely blustery conditions, the Bulldogs’ kickers apparently performed well.

Or at least, adequately.

Rodrigo Blankenship, a redshirt freshman walkon from Marietta, is the only kicker Smart referred to by name. He apparently made “a couple” of field goals and had one blown right by the wind into an upright.

Georgia does not currently have a place-kicker on scholarship. William Ham, Tanner Stumpe, Cole Gibbon, Mitchell Rostowsky are other walkons working with the team this spring. Mitchell Wasson, currently a senior at Lassiter in Marietta, is a “preferred walkon” who will join the Bulldogs this summer.

“I guess I was being a pessimist and a little worried about the whole field-goal thing,” Smart said.

“But those guys kicked it well. And it was windy, like I said. One of those kicks got blown wide right that (Blankenship) hit pretty good. … The wind was really blowing out there. I did think that Rodrigo did a nice job with field goals. He had one hit the upright that he didn’t make. But for the most part it was good.”

G-Day, Georgia’s annual spring football scrimmage, is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 16, at Sanford Stadium. Check back here daily for DawgNation’s G-Day coverage brought to you by Georgia United Credit Union.