Kicker Andrew Franks hopes to put engineering career on hold | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Kicker Andrew Franks hopes to put engineering career on hold

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DAVIE, Fla. – Andrew Franks wants to spend his life helping to repair football players.

On the way, he might help repair the Miami Dolphins.
Franks, who grew up in California, chose his college based on medicine rather than sports. "I want to be a doctor," he said after a training camp workout earlier this month. "I don't really want to go to school for 20 years, so biomedical engineering was a way to do both."

He went to tiny Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., known as RPI to those in the know (and anyone who has followed the college careers of hockey stars Adam Oates, Joe Juneau and Daren Puppa). He figured he could play football while he studied.

"I wanted to make materials for hip and joint replacements, prosthetics that go inside the body," Franks said.

He majored in biomedical engineering, which is one of the many engineering-related fields at RPI. (George Ferris, who invented the Ferris Wheel, went to RPI.) Franks said the best part was studying "tissue, biomaterial interaction, extracellular matrix."

But a funny thing happened on the way to the lab coat: Franks proved to be a superb college kicker. He averaged 61.4 yards per kickoff and booted a school-record 54-yard field goal against Hobart (which had future NFL draftee Ali Marpet on its team). He made second-team AP Little All-America as a senior.
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The Dolphins signed Franks as an undrafted free agent and suddenly people noticed, and not just the coaches. Franks began launching footballs so far that a few of them hit the training facility behind the goalposts. He said he hit from 72 yards at one point when practicing on his own. After one practice, he tweeted, "I'm trending, I don't even know what that means haha." (At least there's something he doesn't know.)
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https://sports.yahoo.com/news/andre...career-to-kicking-for-dolphins-214359310.html
 
Let's hope he finds a little more consistency and we'll all be hoping that engineering career is on hold for a long while.
 
Wouldn't put to much hope in him, I live 10 mins from rpi and didn't even know they had a football team until this kid showed up.
 
Pretty sure our kicker is not currently on the team. Wait till the cuts and get somebody good.
 
Worst case scenario is he gets a lot of a Fins workout gear and has a better summer out of college than almost any other kid followed by a long and successful career. Either way it looks pretty solid for Franks. I am pulling for him over Sturgis now though.
 
nyfinzfan said:
Pretty sure our kicker is not currently on the team. Wait till the cuts and get somebody good.
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great post! Miami's FO must have its ears open for that day! Too much inconsistency. Risk of extra points requires a better kicker
 
At this point if he can outkick Sturgis on kickoffs I'm ready to say just keep him and then don't kick fieldgoals or extra points unless we absolutely have to.
 
With the struggles that Sturgis has had I wanted Franks to come out and win the job in training camp to solidify the kicker position. Unfortunately Franks has appeared to be as inconsistent as Sturgis has so far. I hope one of them picks it up shortly and wins the job for the season, but as of now I'm watching other teams cuts closely, hoping to pick up a good kicker.
 
I sat next to his family in Chicago at the game. They were a very nice group of people and really bumbed when we went for it on 4th down in the 4th qtr. We all thought for sure Joe would let him kick it.
 
woody1351 said:
I sat next to his family in Chicago at the game. They were a very nice group of people and really bumbed when we went for it on 4th down in the 4th qtr. We all thought for sure Joe would let him kick it.
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That sucks .....


Sturgis hasnt earned his Job . I hope Franks takes it
 
For some reason Philbin seems comfortable with Sturgis (he may be the only one in the world). In practice Sturgis has started getting more of the reps. I know it's not going to make people happy...especially not me....but Sturgis is our kicker. I'd be surprised if Joe replaces him. Franks is just a camp body.
 
Bumpus said:
:chuckle: Lets hope it's that easy. I kinda have my doubts that "somebody good" gets cut.
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I don't think the Broncos are keeping two kickers....Connor Barth and McManus. Here is what McManus can do:

"When you're trying to make the team as a kicker, one way to impress the coaching staff is by hitting 70-yard field goals -- and that's exactly what Broncos kicker Brandon McManus did on Monday.

Before McManus could try the 70-yarder during the team's two-minute drill, he had had to convince special-teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis that he could make it.

"I actually told Coach DeCamillis that I could make this one," McManus said. "I don't know if he believed me or not, so I saw him smirk at me and he went over to coach [Gary Kubiak] and he told him. I just waited for them to make the call. I knew I could get it there, it was just whether -- it does look far away, I'll tell you that."

Once he got the green light, McManus, who's in a battle with Connor Barth for the Broncos kicking job, went out and nailed the kick. You can see below how close the ball was to the crossbar when it went in."

source: CBS Sports
 
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