FAU quarterback Rusty Smith will work out for New England a day after working out for Miami and one day before getting married.
Workouts before wedding
Former FAU quarterback Rusty Smith will work out for New England one day after he and six other Owls took part in the Miami Dolphins local workout day.
Originally published on
4/9/2010
by
Chuck King
Former FAU quarterback Rusty Smith learned Friday morning that the small hole he had in his Saturday schedule will be filled by a workout for the New England Patriots.
Representatives from the Patriots, including head coach Bill Belichick, will be in Jacksonville to put Smith through his paces less than 24 hours before Smith get married.
“There is a window of about four hours where I didn’t have anything; then a rehearsal dinner at 9,” Smith said. “It worked out great. I now have a completely packed day.”
The workout for the Patriots follows Friday’s local workout for the Miami Dolphins. Smith joined former Owls Chris Bonner, Cortez Gent, Jamari Grant, Jason Harmon, Willie Rose and Carl Spitale at the Dolphins local workout.
“FAU definitely represented today at the Dolphins practice facility,” Smith said. “Every group that I went with had someone who I threw to before. It was good to have so many FAU guys there. I know there are guys on our team who have NFL potential, it just hasn’t happened yet.”
The day didn’t go as well for one such player. Jason Harmon pulled his hamstring during a kickoff return that opened the drill portion of the day.
Harmon’s agent, Glen Lansky, said the injury is minor and shouldn’t keep Harmon out of action beyond a week or two, but it did end Thursday’s workout.
“I felt terrible,” Smith said. “I saw it happen. It was weird. He was just running and he made one cut. Usually a hamstring injury happens when you are running in a straight line at top speed.”
Bonner and Gent were among a group of 16 wide receivers that included Clemson’s Jacoby Ford. Because the receiving group was large, Bonner said each individual receiver caught fewer balls than the receivers did the day prior at Tampa Bay’s workout.
Receivers caught passes from Smith, West Virginia’s Jarrett Brown and Duke’s Thaddeus Lewis.
Each player was given the opportunity to run the 40-yard dash and the shuttle drills. Bonner said the Dolphins didn’t tell the players their times.
“I felt better than I did on (FAU’s) Pro Day,” said Bonner, who ran a 4.75 in Boca Raton. “Hopefully I ran a better time, but at the same time working out two days in a row, my legs weren’t as fresh as they could be.”
Bonner admitted that his familiarity with Smith made the workout go smoother.
“It was just like throwing in the back of the Ox,” Bonner said. “One of the coaches actually shouted ‘nice timing.’ I was like, yeah, we’ve been doing it for five years now.”
The NFL will hold its annual first-year player draft from April 22-24.