Instead of listening to the president of Panama address Georgia Tech graduates Saturday morning, new Panthers kicker Harrison Butker will be getting tips from special teams coordinator Thomas McGaughey to help his post-college transition.
Butker, a seventh-round pick and the first drafted kicker in franchise history, is skipping Georgia Tech's commencement exercises to attend the Panthers' rookie minicamp this week.
The two-day minicamp is scheduled to wrap up early Saturday afternoon not long after Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela imparts a few pearls of wisdom to the Tech grads.
Butker insists there's nowhere he'd rather be.
"I'd love to be there and be able to walk and get that picture taken where I get the fake diploma and shaking the (university) president's hand. But I guess I'll just have to take those pictures some other time," Butker said this week in a phone interview.
"My focus is on football now," he added. "So whatever's asked of me, I'm going to be there for it. I'm not going to miss it for anything."
Butker didn't miss much of anything during his final season with the Yellow Jackets, connecting on all 46 extra points and 15 of 17 field goals for an .882 percentage that led the ACC and ranked 13th nationally.
That accuracy _ combined with Butker's booming kickoffs _ were enough to convince the Panthers to use a draft pick on a kicker for the first time in 23 years.
Butker, the last of three kickers drafted last weekend, was brought in to compete with veteran Graham Gano, who's coming off his worst season as a Panther.
McGaughey went to Atlanta before the draft to work out Butker, a former soccer/basketball/tuba player (more on that in a second) who felt a connection to the Panthers' special teams coach.
"I love that he's a young guy. He was great to get along with. He just told me, 'Hey, we're looking for some competition,' " Butker recalled. "That's all any special teams coach can really ask for is competition. That makes whoever's there better. ...
"I'm just going in there knowing there's going to be competition. Graham Gano's a great kicker and I'm looking forward to going out there and doing my best and hopefully learning some things from him."
