By Daniel Beach, UF Communications

 

If Florida Gator fans have learned anything about head coach Urban Meyer during his five years on the job in Gainesville, it’s that he realizes the importance of special teams and their effect on winning football games. Coach Meyer personally coaches the units and he demands that players on his squads take their roles seriously. A key cog in many of those special teams’ units is Caleb Sturgis, a sophomore kicker from St. Augustine High School.

 

Sturgis, who continues to handle the team’s kickoff duties for the second-straight season, also emerged as the starting place-kicker over incumbent returning senior Jonathan Phillips. There might not have been anyone more surprised in that decision than Sturgis - who did not even know there was a job to be won after the amazing 2008 campaign Phillips had last season by converting 13 of 14 field goals and 78 of 79 extra-point attempts.

 

“It was pretty awesome to get the opportunity to kick some field goals as the starter,” Sturgis explained. “There was talk in the off-season about redshirting me, but I did not want to do that because I felt this year could be pretty special for the team. It’s been pretty cool to be put in this situation.”

 

Coach Meyer made the choice to give Sturgis the starting nod during the week of practice before the Tennessee game and has not looked back since. Sturgis has proven to the coaching staff that not only does he have the leg for the job, but also the ability to produce in pressure situations.

 

Sturgis displayed his cool, but confident, demeanor during a clutch moment on Oct. 17 against Arkansas. Florida had trailed for much of the game before tying the score at 20-20. With time dwindling in the fourth quarter, the Gators drove down the field to the Hogs’ 10-yard line with 13 seconds left to play. With the game on the line, Coach Meyer turned Sturgis to win the game for his team. He trotted out and with 90,508 onlookers waiting anxiously, proceeded to boot the ball straight through the uprights to give the Gators the lead.

 

Everyone in The Swamp went wild…except one. Sturgis, who had just produced the biggest play in his career, stood calmly and attempted to remind his jubilant teammates that there were still nine seconds left on the clock and the game had not been won yet.

 

“The offense drove down the field and set me up with a pretty easy kick,” Sturgis acknowledged. “I’m glad [Urban Meyer] had faith in me to settle for a field goal.”

 

That has not been the only game-changing kick by Sturgis this season. Against Georgia, Sturgis connected on a career-long 56-yard field goal that helped Florida regain the momentum from the rival Bulldogs when the score was 14-10 in favor of the Orange and Blue. The kick easily cleared the goalposts and showed that the reports out of high school about Sturgis’ powerful leg were not erroneous. This game was extra special for the native Floridian, who grew up just a few miles south of Jacksonville.

           

“It was pretty big,” Sturgis said. “My family and friends were there and it was pretty awesome to come back close to home and do something to help the team.”

 

For his efforts and consistent play this season, Sturgis was recently announced as one of 20 semifinalists for the 2009 Lou Groza Collegiate Place-Kicker Award by the Palm Beach County Sports Commission. Entering the FIU game, he has been successful on 18-of-24 (.750) field-goal attempts and has converted on two or more kicks in seven of eight SEC games for Florida.

           

Sturgis has also thrived in his other role on Coach Meyer’s special teams: kickoff. Florida currently ranks second in the SEC in kickoff coverage, holding opponents to an average of under 20 yards a return. The Gators’ success is in large part due to Sturgis’ ability to create hang time which allows his speedy kickoff coverage teammates ample time to seal up the gaps and prevent large returns.

 

Despite the kickoff coverage team’s success, Sturgis still notes that there is ample room for improvement.

 

“I feel that I haven’t hit the ball as far as I should, but I’ve been getting good hang time on it. Hopefully, I will improve,” explained a humble Sturgis.

           

Sturgis, who was a standout kicker at St. Augustine High School, has found that the biggest difference between high school and college football is the mental approach to the game. There is a vast difference between kicking in front of a few thousand people at a high school game and the crowds of 90,000 fans or more that are often found during a big-time SEC game. Kickers have the most difficulty adjusting to this phase of the game, as they are given the most time to think about their assignment. Most other players are afforded the opportunity to rely on instincts and can more easily block out the crowd, but not kickers. Kickers must be able to perform at their highest level under the watch of thousands of scrutinizing eyes.

 

“At first, it was overwhelming, but eventually it becomes second nature. Last year, there were some times that were kind of crazy, but now it’s in the back of my mind” Sturgis admitted.

           

Caleb is not the first from the Sturgis family to be an extraordinary athlete. His father, Smiley, now a pastor in St. Augustine, was a well-known tennis player growing up. His older brother, Nathan, is a defender for Major League Soccer’s Seattle Sounders and his oldest sister, Lydia, played collegiate soccer at William & Mary.

           

“Our family was always really competitive in sports growing up. We all played soccer. There have been big footsteps to fill, but they led a good path for me,” said a grateful Sturgis.

 

-UF-