TWO BITS: Pouncey in Miami, Black in Tampa
1 » Just days after being selected with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, former Florida Gators center Mike Pouncey went on the Joe Rose Show on 560 WQAM in Miami, FL to discuss being drafted by the Miami Dolphins. Discussing draft day itself, Pouncey said he was worried when the Dolphins didn’t call him right away as the clock ticked away. “When they was on the clock, I was getting nervous. I leaned over and told my brother, ‘Man, I don’t think they’re going to call me,’” he said. “And they finally called me with like two minutes left on the clock. It was one of the best moments of my life, and I’m so happy to be a Miami Dolphin.”
Waiting to hear from Miami left tackle Jake Long so he can begin practicing with his teammates, Pouncey also talked to Rose about his bad snaps with Florida in 2010. “It was my first year playing center. As the season went on, I got better and better,” he said. “At the end of the year, it wasn’t even a problem. When I went out there the first game, I just let it get in front of me. I took shotgun snapping for granted basically.”
2 » Former Gators safety Ahmad Black may not been picked as early as he wanted (or should have been), but things worked out in the end as his favorite team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, decided to give him a chance to succeed in the NFL. Speaking with his hometown paper, the Lakeland Ledger, over the weekend, Black was excited. “This is a blessing,” he said. “A lot of people have asked me where I wanted to go, and Tampa was always my first pick. That’s my favorite team. I didn’t really want to say I just want Tampa because there was always a chance I would go somewhere else.”
Tampa Bay head coach Raheem Morris won’t label Black position-wise, though he thinks he can assist in a number of ways. “He is a safety that has the ability to play corner [and is a] hybrid athlete that can do multiple things because of [his] instincts and awareness,” he said.
