Moorpark Community College

Miami must assess kicking game

The journey always ended where it began - with Matt Bosher.

"Playing at UM was a dream come true," Bosher said by phone this week. "Everybody there was my family."

Now, as Bosher moves on in his career as a rookie punter with the Atlanta Falcons, the Hurricanes, in current coach Al Golden's perfect world, would love to find one person to do it all.

"That's one-stop shopping," Golden said of Bosher, whose departure, he noted, was a "great loss."

"Does he have any offspring?" Golden said.

No. But the Hurricanes do have a few players vying for the job - or jobs, which Golden realizes will likely be divided among multiple kickers.

No more bailouts

"We have to compensate for his loss," Golden said of Bosher, who was drafted in the sixth round. "It's going to have to be a function of the unit. So we've tried to drill that into their minds because they became very reliant on him because he was so talented, to kind of bail them out, either with a good punt or a good kick."

Jake Wieclaw, a 6-2, 200-pound fourth-year junior from New Lenox, Ill., has been waiting behind Bosher seemingly forever. He has kicked off once in one game, last season's opener against Florida A&M. Otherwise, he sat.

"I knew the caliber of player Bosher was when I got here. I knew he was one of the best," said Wieclaw, whose 19 field goals in 2006 set an Illinois high school record, and whose 48 career field goals were two shy of a national mark. He also played wide receiver, with a team-leading 35 receptions for 485 yards and three touchdowns in 2007, before breaking his foot that year and derailing his progress.

Wieclaw will be battling with 6-0, 160-pound freshman Matt Goudis, a former ESPNU three-star prospect from West Hills, Calif. Goudis was ranked the 13th-best kicker according to rivals.com, converting 12 of 16 field goals as a senior with a long of 55 yards. He averaged 40 yards a punt.

Botts enters the picture

The punting job is being heavily contested by Dalton Botts, a 6-3, 198-pound redshirt sophomore who transferred from Moorpark (Calif.) Community College.

Botts was a quarterback at Bakersfield (Calif.) Taft Union High School. He punted and played quarterback as a freshman at Bakersfield Community College and had a verbal commitment with LSU to be a punter this season until he said the Tigers pulled his offer Dec. 31 after NCAA sanctions affected their scholarship numbers.

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Sophomore punter Dalton Botts (Taft, Calif.) has been impressive early on in camp, booming deep punts on a consistent basis in different special teams drills. Botts, who stands at 6-foot-3, is among a handful of candidates for the punting job, which is wide open after the departure of now Atlanta Falcon Matt Bosher .

Botts attended Taft Union High School in California before stops at Bakersfield College and Moorpark Community College. Coming out of high school, he was three-star prospect according to Kohl's Kicking.

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"The Golden Era is change. A lot of things have changed, some for the better. It's very, very exciting to be around the University of Miami program right now with Coach Golden here. He's brought a lot of energy that a lot of guys have noticed has been lacking. He's holding people accountable. At the end of the day, it's making the team so much better because of what he's brought.

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A model community counseling program for ethnic minority low income women

Ventura County Community College District, Moorpark College, Ventura College, attendance accounting, 1983-84 fiscal year

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