UTC's Craig Camay kicks off against Furman at Finley Stadium.
Staff Photo by Angela Lewis/Chattanooga Times Free PressWhile Buster Skrine is working out and waiting to begin his pro football career, another former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga player is making the most of his chance to raise his profile.
Skrine, selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round of April's NFL draft, can do little more than take care of his body - he's working out twice a day - while the lockout continues.
"I've been talking to the defensive captain, Scott Fujita, about once a week, and he's been keeping me updated," the cornerback said. "I'm just staying in shape and eating right and doing all the little stuff to be ready after the lockout."
Craig Camay is playing for the Trenton (N.J.) Steel in the Southern Indoor Football League and has been the top kicker in the league all season. He's 20-of-33 on field goals this season - the uprights are 9 feet wide, half the gap he faced in college - and his 149 points kicking are 65 more than the next-highest total.
"It's completely, completely different," Camay said of kicking indoors. "I can't even tell you how different it is."
Not only is his target much smaller, and most of his kickoffs are squibs, but Camay also has to contend with an obstacle he never faced with the Mocs: scoreboards. The Steel play in the Sun National Bank Center, home to the Trenton Devils of the East Coast Hockey League.
Despite all that, Camay kicked a career-long 61-yarder earlier this season.
"We practice at an indoor soccer place, so I don't get to kick field goals. Before that game, it was weird: I was hitting long field goals. I actually hit a 61-yarder in warmups," he said. "I had to kick it 61 yards, but I also had to kick it under the scoreboard and get it through [the uprights]. I was pretty proud of that."
Camay's longest at UTC was 52 yards, which he made as a senior in 2009 on his way to Associated Press second-team All-America and first-team All-Southern Conference honors.
Skrine was a two-time All-SoCon cornerback with the Mocs, but he knows he has a lot to learn about being a pro defender. He hasn't been able to study last year's playbook because the Browns hired a new defensive coordinator in the offseason, Dick Jauron, and nobody on the team is able to study his scheme.
"I got drafted and I'm ready to get started - learning the defense, getting the playbook and doing all that other stuff I'm supposed to be doing," Skrine said.
Camay, meanwhile, is hoping his performance this season for the Steel will help him get a shot at the NFL. He said he and his agent have been contacted by some NFL, UFL and "a bunch" of Arena Football League people.
"Being on the team and getting stats and numbers, and getting my name out there, that's going to help a lot," he said. "I feel like because I'm playing well, I'm raising my stock."
Former Mocs defensive end Josh Beard, the 2009 SoCon defensive player of the year, also is in the SIFL, playing for the Columbus (Ga.) Lions. In nine games, Beard has four receptions and six tackles.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.