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Pociask's Allegiance Lies With Tuskers

October 6, 2010 - United Football League (UFL 1)
Florida Tuskers News Release


ORLANDO, FL - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 - The vision of the United Football League has been well documented from the beginning. While its main goal remains bringing high quality football to markets underserved by professional football, the UFL also provides athletes with a second - and sometimes a first - chance to show they belong in the highest echelon of the game.

A perfect example of the UFL's vision is Florida Tuskers tight end Jason Pociask. A highly regarded player, Pociask has spent the last five years in the NFL, splitting time between the active, practice squad and training camps of seven different teams. And while Pociask's UFL rights were acquired by the Tuskers in early June, he did not report until the closing days of training camp as the Dallas Cowboys signed him and held on to him until its final round of cuts.

Although he was facing stiff competition and got a late start, Pociask made the Tuskers final 52-man roster. The Wisconsin product has played in all three games so far and has been listed as the starter in the past two games. He recorded five receptions for 80 yards so far, with his best outing came against the Las Vegas Locomotives in last Thursday's 20-17 loss when he had three receptions for 46 yards.

Like most of his teammates, when you ask them about their future NFL prospects Pociask shows his loyalty to the UFL and to the Tuskers.

"My career now is in Orlando with the Florida Tuskers," Pociask emphatically states. "I'm here right now trying to help out this football team. After the season is over we'll see where things go from there."

A former teammate of quarterback Brooks Bollinger while with the New York Jets, Pociask has also played with the New England Patriots, Carolina Panthers, and Seattle Seahawks while also crossing paths with head coach Jay Gruden with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where Gruden was an offensive assistant under his brother Jon.

The tight end in Gruden's offense must be versatile with the ability to both block and catch the football downfield. And that's why Gruden sought to acquire Pociask in the first place and has such high regard for his skills.

"He's a complete tight end, a great route runner and a solid blocker," Gruden says. "He has played with Brooks before so they always seem to be on the same page. He has been around a lot of schemes in his day. Jason is a smart football player we just have to do a better job of getting him more touches out there."

Like Bollinger, Pociask played in Wisconsin's run heavy attack that had him labeled as strictly a blocking tight end. The evidence is written in his stats where he posted 12 receptions for 144 yards in 41 career games at the school.

Wisconsin's student newspaper once found their football team's offensive scheme so run oriented that Bollinger was featured with three telling pictures. The first picture showed him scrambling, the second showed him handing off, and in the final picture he was shown scrambling again.

Although he shared playing time in college, Pociask impressed the New York Jets enough to make him a fifth round pick in 2005. Pociask believes his dad's insistence that he learned how to properly block paved the way for his success in college and the professional ranks. "My father taught me backwards of what most dads today are probably doing when showing their sons how to play tight end," Pociask says. "He taught me how to block first and catch second so when I got to college I fell into that 'blocking tight end' category because we ran the ball so much at Wisconsin. I'd say it's definitely a bonus getting to go downfield now and make catches in the Tuskers offense."

The Tuskers have gotten off to an unexpected 1-2 start after consecutive losses to Las Vegas and Sacramento. On paper, the Tuskers are a much better team and they know it. After losing a 10-point fourth quarter lead in Sacramento and a seven-point fourth quarter lead at home last Thursday; Florida will have to find ways to finish off its opponents.

Pociask says most of those losses are self inflicted mistakes that have allowed the team to beat themselves.

"I think if we don't beat ourselves in games we should beat anyone in this league with the talent that we have," he said. "Offensively we have some talented receivers like Cortez Hankton and Chas Gessner having big games for us. We just need to put the 1-2 behind us and focus on this week trying to be 1-0 every week."

TUSKERS NOTEBOOK BANGED UP HOGS: With the Tuskers (1-2) facing a crucial game against the Hartford Colonials (1-1) on Saturday (Versus 3 p.m.) the status of several key players remains in question. Starting linebacker Tim McGarigle (concussion), starting defensive end Patrick Chukurwah (hip flexor) and running back Maurice Hicks (hamstring) all remain questionable; while cornerback Fahkir Brown (neck) was down-graded from probable to questionable. With just an eight-game regular season, the Tuskers will be out to avoid a third loss in the first half of the season.

CULPEPPER SET FOR CITRUS BOWL RETURN: After Saturday's game, the Tuskers will enjoy their first bye week of the season, before returning home to face the Sacramento Mountain Lions on Thursday, Oct. 21. The game will mark the Citrus Bowl return of former UCF great Daunte Culpepper, who played his last college (11/21/98 vs. New Mexico) and first game as a professional (1/16/99, Florida vs. USA All-Star Game) at the Citrus Bowl. The Tuskers are offering special group seating and discounts to all UCF Alumni and Fans by calling 407-377-6828.

PARITY RULES IN UFL: With four of the five UFL teams having at least one loss this season, don't be surprised if the two spots for the UFL Championship Game are determined by a tie-breaker as all five teams seem to be evenly matched. Through Week 3 of the regular season, five of the six games to date have been determined by four points or less. Three of the six games have seen the winning points scored on a team's final offensive possession and both Week 3 games had identical 20-17 scores. "Winning is obviously the most important but you have to pay attention to the other factors, including head-to-head results and head-to-head net points," Tuskers head coach Jay Gruden said. "It would not surprise me to see it (championship game appearance) come down to a second, third or even fourth tie-breaker."

PARRISH GETTING IT DONE: Florida continues to get solid work from punter Ken Parrish, who has shown the ability to get both distance - and when needed-height on his kicks. Last week, the first-year UFL player from East Stroudsburg averaged 41.7 yards on six punts with three of the six being downed inside the 20-yard line. For the season, Parrish is averaging 43.8 yards per punt on 15 attempts with seven of his 15 efforts being killed inside the opponent's 20-yard line.

SOMEONE ELSE PLEASE: Count Tuskers quarterback Brooks Bollinger as one of the Florida players who is sick of seeing the Las Vegas Locomotives. Counting last week's last-second loss to the Locomotives, the Tuskers have played Las Vegas five times in their last 10 games. "I know we only had four teams last year and because we met in the title game it was somewhat unavoidable, but it seems like we have played them every week for the last two years," Bollinger said. "At least if we meet them again this year, it will be in the championship game." After meeting three times last season, the Tuskers faced Las Vegas twice in the first three weeks of the 2010 season

THURMAN HITS DOUBLE FIGURES: With 11 total tackles (10 solo, 2 assists) against Las Vegas, linebacker Odell Thurman became the first Tuskers player to register double figure-tackles in a single game. Thurman has also made several big plays this season, with an interception, a forced fumble, a sack and a tackle-for-loss, and a batted-down pass. With the Cincinnati Bengals in 2005, Thurman was runner-up for the NFL's Rookie Defensive Player of the Year Award.

IT'S A FIRST According to league officials, Parker Douglass' game-winning field goal against the Tuskers last Thursday marked the first time in the regular season that a UFL game has been decided with points on the final play of the game.



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