Former Syracuse football placekicker Cole Murphy has signed a deal with the Arizona Cardinals. Here’s how all of that transpired.
It’s been a long winding road for former Syracuse football placekicker Cole Murphy. Cole had a wonderful career with the Orange where he still is the all-time leader in field goals made (59) and is the No. 3 leading scorer all-time in program history.
After his time with the Orange, he went through the NFL Draft process, went to the Syracuse Pro Day and continued to wait for his opportunity. When he didn’t receive that call from the NFL he bided his time working out and keeping his mechanics fresh when a unique opportunity presented itself.
A brand new league had formed in the Alliance of American Football led by a proven football commodity in Bill Polian. Eight new teams were created and Cole got the call from the San Diego Fleet to be their kicker.
The obvious connection to Syracuse was general manager Dave Boller who was putting this roster together. I spoke with Cole Murphy about his time with the Fleet and what went wrong:
"“First off I just want to say that I’m extremely thankful for that opportunity. The team, the staff, the players I mean they were all fantastic. I went through training camp and looked good heading into the season. But with a new team in a new league there was a lot of growing pains. There are no kickoffs or PATs in the AAF, so I was having a difficult time adjusting to only hitting field goals. It wasn’t the team’s fault, it was my fault I just had a hard time adjusting. Being let go from the Fleet was an eye-opener for me. After that I had to figure out how to pick myself back up. In my head I was kind of thinking if I can’t make it with a developmental league can I make it with a NFL team.”"
Shortly before the season, Murphy left the team. After taking some time to figure out what was the next step in life, Cole got an opportunity to go to a “free agent combine”, what is that exactly?
Legendary special teams coach Gary Vauner hosts his “Field of Dreams” camps during different parts of the year, here are the details on the event Cole participated in this week:
"“Just like in the movie “Field of Dreams” you build it and they will come. My “Field of Dreams” was building two of the best combines for specialists to showcase their talents to NFL, CFL and AAF professional Football Teams. On March 10, 11 & 12 they came! A total of 123 specialist tried to qualify for this event. However, only 76 Specialists qualified to showcase their skills in front of 28 Professional Football Teams Special Teams Coordinators, Assistant Coaches, Scouts and Directors of PRO Personnel. The weather was horrible! Hats off to everyone for Improvising and Adjusting to the various changes and adjustments we had to make to get the testing completed. Thank You to my Staff, Snappers, Punters, Kickers and Teams for coming to evaluate the specialists that made Coach Zauner’s “Field of Dreams” another success.”"
Cole realized his dream by even outperforming his own expectations and winning the entire competition. That competition mind you had one such obstacle that would’ve been breaking NFL records: a 64-yard field goal. Murphy was competing with a ton of quality competition in this camp that featured 123 specialists which even featured some former NFL kickers as well.
But after dominating the competition Cole felt confident that he was going to get a call at some point from an NFL team. This camp had 28 NFL scouts in attendance. But little did Cole know that call would be within the next 24 hours. Here’s Cole Murphy in his own words describing the call:
"“So what’s kind of funny is most coaches don’t have the same area code as the team they’re with. The phone call I got was from Austin, Texas. I thought at first it could be one of those telemarketers, but I answered anyway and I’m glad I did. Me and a buddy of mine split a hotel room to make it to this camp and we were both excited and listening to the phone. I had never met a special teams coach before from the NFL let alone have them call me and say we want to bring you in for a physical.”"
Cole Murphy admitted that not even two minutes after the ink was dry on the contract that the news had already leaked that he had signed with the Arizona Cardinals.
Murphy will join two former Syracuse football players with the Arizona Cardinals in Chandler Jones and Justin Pugh. Both Pugh and Jones were former first-round picks with the New York Giants and New England Patriots respectively.
In our full-length phone conversation (you can listen to above) he admitted he had never met Jones or Pugh so he’s excited for that as well. I’m so happy for Cole Murphy from his time at Syracuse to now earning his first NFL contract, it’s an amazing story.
But even after signing his contract, it’s not over. Nothing is ever guaranteed and Murphy will be competing with Zane Gonzalez who has been in the pros for the last two years with the Cleveland Browns and now the Cardinals. Cole will compete for the starting job and try to keep his NFL dreams alive!