Punter Bacchetta returns home with portal commitment to GT
Georgia Tech added another portal commitment on Monday night, this one on special teams, as the Jackets secured a punter from the portal for the second straight year with the addition of former Rice and Penn State punter Alex Bacchetta.
Bacchetta, a former Westminster School (Ga.) standout, comes to Tech after two years at Penn State followed by two years at Rice. He only punted four times in limited action over his two years at Penn State in 2022-2023, avaraging 40 yards per punt and placing three attempts inside the opponents’ 20 yard line.
Bacchetta was Rice’s starting punter the last two seasons after transferring their prior to 2024 and averaged 43.3 yards per attempt on 112 punts in those two seasons with a long of 64, 24 punts over 50 yards and 12 punts downed inside the opponents’ 20 yard line. He is coming off a strong 2025 campaign in which he averaged 45 yards per punt on 62 attempts with 14 over 50 yards and 12 inside the opponents’ 20 yard line.
Bacchetta was an Academic All Big-Ten selection in 2023 and a Rice Honor Athlete as well as an American Conference All-Academic pick in 2025. He originally committed to Penn State in the Class of 2022 as a 3-star punter out of Westminster over other offers from Arkansas and Virginia. He is the 22nd ranked punter in this transfer portal class according to On3’s industry rankings.
Georgia Tech head coach Brent Key and special teams coach Tim Salem have now gotten a punter via the transfer portal for the second straight year as Jackets’ punter Marshall Nicholls is coming off a strong 2025 in his final college season. He punted 34 times for an average of 47.9 yards and a long of 64 with 13 of those being downed inside the opponents’ 20 yard line.
Bacchetta’s commitment gives Tech its third of this transfer portal cycle after DE/Edge Jordan Walker committed on Sunday night and CB/WR Jaylen Mbakwe committed on Monday afternoon.
