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Andrew Franks' path to the Dolphins

Daytona Fin

Daytona Fin

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And once you learn how and why the Dolphins reached out to a Division III school in upstate New York for a kicker with very ordinary statistics — once all the twists become clear — you can’t help but conclude this relationship had to heat up over a few good slices.

Biomedical engineering? There’s another item you wouldn’t automatically associate with professional football players, but it’s a key element of this story. Franks had been so determined to get his degree in that field that when big-school recruiters tried to strong-arm him into easier courses — so football could be his de facto major — Franks said thanks, but no thanks.
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YouTube? Huge. The Dolphins always discover talent on YouTube, right? “It’s kind of unusual,” Rizzi says, laughing.


We could go on, mentioning the time Franks fractured his skull in practice and feared he might never play again. Or how he and his father built the family home from scratch. Or how he has absolutely no excuse for having never met Clint Eastwood. But let’s also make one thing perfectly clear:

Andrew Franks, who rose from this unique background seemingly out of nowhere, has positioned himself smack in the mix to be the Dolphins’ kicker in 2015. He is competing with incumbent Caleb Sturgis, whose first two seasons in the NFL told the Dolphins they either need to light a fire under him or possibly fire him.

“He’s right in the middle of the competition,” Rizzi says of Franks. “From the day he’s gotten here, he has gotten better every time he’s out. The kickers don’t kick every day, but on his work days, literally if you drew a graph, if he started here (holding his hand down low), he’s been ‘arrow up’ the entire way.”

Rizzi and the Dolphins’ scouting department found Franks after broadening their search when the candidates at the NFL Combine failed to impress. When Rizzi couldn’t find much film on Franks, he turned to YouTube and was intrigued by how the ball popped off his foot. So Rizzi hopped on a plane to work him out. After that?


Who needs the New England Patriots’ snowplow? Andrew Franks’ work ethic is so legendary at RPI that no one was surprised the day he cleared a patch of turf for himself, then trained. (Photo courtesy RPI Athletics)
“I said to him, ‘I’m an Italian guy from the Northeast. There’s got to be one good pizza place in Troy, New York, you can find me.’ ”

Rizzi went for sausage and onion, Franks plain. They hit it off, but not before a curious thing happened. Most college students know more about pizza joints than study hall. Franks had to ask around. See, at RPI, everybody knew that if you wanted to find Franks, you looked in the library, the practice field or the weight room. Period. A telling photo at RPI shows Franks, having shoveled a clear patch of turf himself, practicing in the snow.
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For most players, not getting drafted is pure disappointment. In the Franks household, it triggered an immediate phone call and joy. Rizzi had told him the Dolphins would snap him up if he weren’t selected.

“When the Dolphins said, ‘We want to bring you in,’ that was kind of the highlight of our life so far,” says Beth Franks, Andrew’s mother.

Engineered for success

It was both justification and payoff for the educated risk Andrew, originally from California, took when he chose RPI, renowned for its difficult engineering program but as a Division III school, not offering athletic scholarships. It’s a campus you set foot on only if you don’t mind taking “Tissue-Biomaterial Interaction” or “Modeling and Analysis of Uncertainty.”
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http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/s...-to-nfl-kicker-andrew-franks-has-shot-/nnTX9/
 
[video=youtube;DUE11d2jE88]https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&persist_app=1&v=DUE11d2jE88[/video]
 
Good story. Sounds like Sturgis is in trouble too, sounds like we're pretty serious about upgrading the position. It also sounds like they are about even on field goal accuracy but Franks booms it through the endzone much more consistently on kickoffs. It could come down to the wire. It could come down to a last minute competition and whoever misses a 45 yarder first is out. That would be cool.
 
Who needs the New England Patriots’ snowplow? Andrew Franks’ work ethic is so legendary at RPI that no one was surprised the day he cleared a patch of turf for himself, then trained. (Photo courtesy RPI Athletics)
“I said to him, ‘I’m an Italian guy from the Northeast. There’s got to be one good pizza place in Troy, New York, you can find me.’ ”

Rizzi went for sausage and onion, Franks plain. They hit it off, but not before a curious thing happened. Most college students know more about pizza joints than study hall. Franks had to ask around. See, at RPI, everybody knew that if you wanted to find Franks, you looked in the library, the practice field or the weight room. Period. A telling photo at RPI shows Franks, having shoveled a clear patch of turf himself, practicing in the snow.
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This cracked me up, because the real reason he probably didn't know where the pizza places are is because Troy NY is not a friendly place he probably barely strayed from campus.

I don't live far from there, didn't even know they had a football team, but good for Franks for being able to play football and get a degree at RPI, that school is no joke when it comes to academics.
 
Let's not forget how excited we were after Sturgis start to his rookie season. Seemed like an automatic machine. And then it was all downhill.


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Despacio said:
Let's not forget how excited we were after Sturgis start to his rookie season. Seemed like an automatic machine. And then it was all downhill.


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I thought it was a mistake to let Carp go but when you get someone worse that cost you games 2 years in a row, you have to make a change. Percentage wise, Sturgis ranked as the worst FG kicker from 30+ yards last year

http://espn.go.com/nfl/statistics/player/_/stat/kicking/sort/fieldGoalPct
 
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