Oliver Barry, CRS GRI
Begin forwarded message:
From: JunoGator <broadreachfsc@earthlink.net>
Date: May 17, 2013, 6:29:06 AM CDT
To: GatorNEWS Lyons <gatornews@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [gatornews] GatorNews from the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, courtesy of JunoGator
Reply-To: gatornews+owners@googlegroups.com
DOLPHINS
Miami Dolphins kicker Dan Carpenter knows there's a battle ahead
Dan Carpenter, Miami's kicker for the past five years, will have to outperform rookie University of Florida product Caleb Sturgis in training camp if he intends to make it six years.
Special teams coodinator Darren Rizzi hugs kicker Dan Carpenter after the game between the Miami Dolphins and Seattle Seahawks at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens on November 25, 2012.Related Content
WEB VOTEIs it OK for Dolphins players to boast about the team's upgraded roster?BY ADAM H. BEASLEY
ABEASLEY@MIAMIHERALD.COM
In shorts and sandals, Dan Carpenter was as relaxed as it gets Thursday.
And for good reason. He had a few days of golf and fishing ahead of him — part of the annual FinsWeekend, benefiting the Miami Dolphins Foundation.
Carpenter better enjoy it. Come August, his life would fray the strongest nerves.
There are two reasons why:
1. Wife Kaela is due with the couple's first child, a son.
2. His very livelihood will be on the line.
Carpenter, the Dolphins' kicker for the past five years, will be locked in a heated training camp battle with Caleb Sturgis, picked by Miami in last month's draft.
Adding to the stress: The baby is due on a week of a road preseason game, which is when jobs are often won and lost.
"There will be a lot going on," Carpenter said with a grin. "The child was planned. We were a little rusty with the timing."
There's no stopping it now — the kid or the competition. It's not unusual for teams to bring in rookie kickers to push their incumbents. But most often, it's an undrafted kid.
When a franchise invests a draft pick — particularly in the fifth round, as was the case with Sturgis — it means serious business, particularly for the veteran.
Asked if he was surprised by the news, Carpenter responded: "Yes and no."
"I think I would have been more surprised if there wasn't anyone here," he added. "There's nothing I can do about it except go out and compete the best I can and make the decision hard for the guys upstairs."
Sturgis, a University of Florida product, made 70 of 88 kicks in his college career, including 77 percent of his attempts from beyond 40 yards last season.
Carpenter has struggled from that distance in recent years. He is 19 of his past 22 on field goals of 40 to 49 yards but 4 of 9 from 50 yards and beyond. Carpenter also missed three kicks last season that would have won games the Dolphins lost and is due $2.7 million in 2013, the final year of his contract.
Shortly after the Sturgis pick, Carpenter got a call from the coaching staff. The message was brief: Get ready to compete.
Carpenter can take solace knowing he has been through this before.
In 2008, he was in Sturgis' position, the rookie battling veteran Jay Feely for the job.
"It wasn't cutthroat or anything like that," said Carpenter, a Pro Bowler in 2009. "[But] I'm not going to say it's a friendship.
"For the moment, we're teammates," he added. "We're going to act like we're teammates and be civil to each other. He knows just like I know it's going to be a competition."
On Thursday, Carpenter was more focused on a different kind of contest — the charity fishing outing set for Saturday morning.
He took home first place his rookie year, hauling in a 31-pound wahoo. The next year, he hooked a king fish the same size — or so he says. It got away before the crew could haul it in. There will be no fish stories come August. Either he outkicks Sturgis and keeps his job, or he doesn't and doesn't.
"Every team has just one kicker," Carpenter said. "It's not like quarterback where you can hang around and be a backup for the rest of your life. Being a kicker, you're either a starter or you're not."
Chicago rookie linebacker Jon Bostic has link to 1985 Bears
BY BRAD BIGGS CHICAGO TRIBUNE [via Miami herald]
CHICAGO -- Before Jon Bostic chose to attend Florida, he got some advice on college football from Wilber Marshall, maybe the best defender ever to play for the Gators.
Now that Bostic is at the next level as a second-round pick of the Bears - 29 years after the team used the 11th overall pick to draft Marshall - one of the stars of the 1985 defense doesn't feel the need to pass on advice.
"He's got his opportunity to do something great," Marshall said. "Now that (Brian) Urlacher is gone, hopefully he can get a fast start. He's got a lot of speed and he's a very smart kid. He can pick up things very quickly. He'll be just like Urlacher. Just like Mike Singletary."
Such praise might be a bit much for Bostic at this point. But Marshall has a rooting interest. He has been friends with Bostic's father, Jon Sr., since they grew up together in Titusville, Fla. Bostic didn't study Marshall closely until after he enrolled at Florida and made the transition from defensive back, which he played in high school.
Bostic's speed - at 6-foot-1, 246 pounds, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds at the scouting combine - was easy to see Friday on the first day of rookie minicamp at Halas Hall. His footwork was also good, as one would expect from a former defensive back who was trained by a DB. Jon Sr. played for the Lions from 1985 to '87.
The Bears signed former Bronco D.J. Williams to replace Urlacher, but if everything goes right, Bostic will be able to challenge for playing time. How long it will take to get on the field is up to him.
Lance Briggs, a third-round pick in 2003, became a starter in his fourth game, and Urlacher moved into the lineup in Week 3 of 2000. They're the last two draft picks at linebacker to have any production for the Bears.
"I am going to try to make the first impact on special teams and do what I can, and hopefully I get on the field," Bostic said.
Some might view following a franchise player such as Urlacher as an intimidating task because it's going to be difficult for Williams, Bostic or anyone to become the player the eight-time Pro Bowl selection was. Bostic views it as a positive challenge.
"There can't be a drop-off," he said. "That's for the whole defense. We have to make sure that defense stays in the top five."
Some scouts didn't give Bostic high grades for his instincts at the position, perhaps because he is still relatively new to it. But he has football smarts and played four years of varsity ball at Palm Beach Central with his father serving as a position coach.
"It is pretty evident when you watch his tape that he got better every year and played his best football as a senior, which is a real testament to the type of kid he is and his work ethic and how he takes coaching," said D.J. Durkin, Florida's linebackers coach last season and now the defensive coordinator.
"He was a guy that had played at a young age in his career and played a lot of football for us, and sometimes those guys become hard to coach. He's not one of them."
The coaching staff challenged Bostic to get better at handling blocks and playing physical at the point of attack before his senior season.
"There was great improvement in that, and a lot of it was with technique and the way he was doing things," Durkin said. "His senior year he played square, taking on blocks, defeating blocks, really became more of a physical player. ... He worked really hard to do that, and it showed up."
Earlier this week, Bostic's father sat down with him and they talked about a few things.
"Thirty years ago going into camp is different than it is now, so I can't really tell him what camp is going to be like," Jon Sr. said. "So I said, 'Look, be humble. Don't act like you know everything, but don't be afraid to show someone how much you know.'
"That's the biggest advice I can give him: 'Remember, they are bringing you there for a reason, and you have to find that reason and show them they made a good choice.' Other than that - and this is what I have told him his whole life - have fun."
His father also passed along Marshall's phone number. Bostic said he owes the former Bear a call.
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