Master of numbers: South Carolina punter Sean Kelly analytical about his craft

South Carolina punter Sean Kelly looks at his job not only in terms of the physical manifestations of the craft but also with a keen analytical eye.

He can get deep into minutiae of how the point of the ball should sit on the drop to get the right roll when it lands, but he can also point to an excel spreadsheet charting numerous factors about his kicks going back to his freshman season. He picked up the mindset from a natural source: his dad.

“Everything for him is about numbers,” Kelly said. “Growing up, like what our budget was going to be, he wanted it written down.

“Turned it in to him, ‘I want to see it.’ For graduating, he wants to see the numbers. He doesn’t care about, oh, I’m taking this course. ‘I want to see this is how long it’s going to take for this process.’ He does a lot with (Microsoft) Excel and he started showing me how to do it.”

Kelly’s father was an estimator for large water plants with a construction firm, planning projects all the way down to the dollar. Kelly remembered going with his dad to construction sites and always getting quoted costs and figures for everything around him.

It seems to have left him with an outlook spanning the big and small pictures of special teams. He’ll talk about getting a printout of a field charting where all his punts land and then switch to talking about the larger scales of special teams, field position and its impact.

One teammate, safety Isaiah Johnson, bestowed Kelly with a title that fits in an entirely non-analytical sense.

“It’s a blessing to have somebody like him be able to put the ball inside the 20 a lot,” Johnson said. “Because everything is based on field position.

“He’s been doing a great job all season.”

Johnson and his defense have benefited from Kelly and his special teams teammates, giving USC the 25th-best starting field position of any team nationally.

Kelly guessed his own lack of acclaim came from rarely ripping massive punts. He ranked a modest 37th in raw punting distance, and even after blasting a career long 69-yarder against Florida, he lamented the fact it rolled across the goal line for a touchback.

Look at net punting, adding the value of forcing fair catches and pinning teams inside the 20, South Carolina jumps to 18th-best in the country with an average of 40.43 yards.

Kelly tries to model his approach after longtime NFL punter Steve Weatherford, well-regarded for his meticulous approach to punting and his body. Kelly spent his high school career playing quarterback in addition to kicking, but a key factor told him his future would not be based around his arm.

“When I stopped growing at 5-foot-9 1/2, 5-10,” Kelly said. “About then I started to realize everybody's getting recruited at 6-foot and over.”

He took an unusual route to Columbia. He spent a couple strong years punting for Florida Atlantic and then took a year off football while attending Tallahassee Junior College. He walked on with the Gamecocks, won the job and now coach Shawn Elliott calls him critical. The coach pointed out subtle things Kelly does, such as keeping the ball away from dangerous returners.

Kelly also carries a subtle persona on campus. Yes, he’s a football player, but not one so easy to identify. That 5-foot-10 frame doesn’t stand out like a lineman’s.

Occasionally classmates will pick him out when his name is called during roll or see him wearing a South Carolina football shirt.

But perhaps more interesting is the wrong guesses about what sport makes him a Gamecock.

“Like I’ve gotten, ‘Oh you’re on the baseball team?’ ” Kelly said. “I was like, ‘No, not on the baseball team.’ ‘Oh, on the cross country team?’ ‘No, I’m 200 pounds. I don’t think I could run cross country, not in too good of shape to run that far.’ Someone actually said, ‘Sean Kelly the golfer.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, no, not at all.’ ”