Football Features 
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Football Features
South County (Lorton, VA) junior Oren Burks has not yet narrowed his list of schools. But according to Burks' father, Orlanda, the 6'4", 200-pound linebacker prospect is now taking a short break from communicating with college coaches in order to think about the schools that have offered and which direction to take his recruitment.
Cornerback is arguably one of the toughest positions in football to play. Learning the position at the college level is even tougher. Having to step in and start as a freshman is almost unheard of. Last season, Virginia true freshman Demetrious "Tra" Nicholson quickly discovered the differences between the high school and college games.
Last week was a good one for Mountain View (Stafford, VA) wide receiver/defensive back DaeSean Hamilton, who landed scholarship offers from Temple, Wake Forest and West Virginia, effectively doubling the amount of FBS offers he possesses.
He's wearing the same number and he's playing the same position, but by all accounts Dominique Terrell showed up for spring football practice at Virginia a changed man. As a result, the prolific high school playmaker has picked up his production and started to flash the skills that made him one of the most coveted recruits in the 2011 class.
TheSabre.com caught up with 2012 recruits Demeitre Brim, Kyle Dockins, Matt Johns, Kye Morgan and Max Valles, as well as 2013 commit Andre Levrone, Jr., to discuss Virginia football's performance at Saturday's Spring Game and much more.
For four years and more than 40 games, Jimmy Howell handled the majority of the punting duties for the Virginia football team. With Howell's eligibility exhausted, however, one of the major position replacements for 2012 comes at punter for the Cavaliers. In Saturday's spring game, sophomore Alec Vozenilek provided the only snaps in the critical special teams spot.
The Virginia football team concluded its spring season with the Orange and Blue game on a warm April afternoon at Scott Stadium. The Hoos were split into two teams with the first team offense and second team defense in orange and the first team defense and second team offense in blue. The Orange prevailed 20-17.
This Saturday when Michael Rocco first steps under center for the Cavaliers during the UVa spring football game, imagine his reaction if he saw 6'5" 245-pound Chris Slade lining up on the other side of the line of scrimmage, wearing his New England Patriots helmet. And what if on the other end he saw 6'3" 270-pound Chris Long of the St. Louis Rams digging his cleats in, while in a three-point stance, wearing his St. Louis Rams helmet ready to barrel down on Rocco?
Andre Levrone, Jr., didn't intend on verbally committing to the University of Virginia on Wednesday, when he and his parents were in Charlottesville for a visit, but he returned home as a member of UVa's 2013 class. So what spurred him on to make the pledge to Mike London?
Whether it's in the form of a new offer or a new achievement, the talent of Bayside (Virginia Beach, VA) junior tailback Taquan "Smoke" Mizzell has been recognized quite often this offseason. Just last week he scored an offer from West Virginia, and this week the 5'11", 185-pound standout learned that he has been selected to play in the 2013 U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
Virginia lost quite a few starters from last season's bowl team and one of the most important positions to replace is at center on the offensive line where Anthony Mihota started all but one game the last two seasons. With an experienced group of players dotting the offensive roster, finding a center that can handle the snaps and at least some of the protection calls is an important piece of the puzzle for the upcoming season. Read about that and more in this package of EDGE notes.
The Virginia football team continues its spring practice work this week before the annual spring game on Saturday at 2 p.m. Get a look at the Hoos in practice before they hit Scott Stadium this weekend with a spring practice photo gallery. This free 100-image photo gallery features coach Mike London, Perry Jones, Dominique Terrell, Demetrious Nicholson, and many other Cavaliers.
Spring practice gives Cavalier fans a preview of what to expect in the fall. It shows how far key players have come since the end of last season. Practice also provides a chance for backups to move into a more significant role. Along those lines, wide receiver Miles Gooch, already a fan favorite, hopes for big things in 2012.
UVa-bound senior Trent Corney has excelled on the gridiron and on the track in his time at Thousand Island Secondary School (Brockville, Ontario, Canada). The 6'3", 245-pound prospect's athletic ability was on full display at the Badger Elite 7-on-7 tournament at Rutgers last year, where he showed a combination of size and speed (he has run an electronically-timed 4.5-second 40). Also last year, Corney captured the gold medal in the Boys Under-18 Javelin event at the Youth Track and Field Championships.
In what was a tune-up for next Saturday's spring game, a crowd estimated between 750-800 people watched the final practice of the Virginia football spring road show at the Sports Backers Stadium here in Richmond on Saturday. A full slate of drills, special teams focus and a 10-minute scrimmage at the end of the session were part of the afternoon schedule.
The Virginia football team is in the home stretch of the spring practice run and the Hoos held their final Charlottesville open practice at the McCue Center on a chilly Friday morning. This spring has been different from the past several years as the Cavaliers are coming off a postseason appearance. The extra practices leading up to the Chick-fil-A Bowl were clearly beneficial as the team looks to be ahead of where it was last year in the spring.
As I prepared for the 2011 grade reports last August, one of the areas I identified as a major issue for the Cavaliers in 2010 and an item to watch as the upcoming season progressed was Virginia's poor offensive scoring efficiency (OSE) numbers in 2010. OSE is the amount of yardage it takes to score one point. Despite winning four more games last fall, the Virginia offense scored fewer points for every yard of offense in 2011. So what's that tell us?
The night of April 2 was a special one for Ocean Lakes (Virginia Beach, VA) junior quarterback Corwin "Turtle" Cutler. That was the night he received his first college scholarship offer, from the University of Virginia.
The Cavalier defense lost three starters on the defensive line from last season's bowl team. All three players - tackles Nick Jenkins and Matt Conrath as well as defensive end Cam Johnson - had become three-year mainstays for the defense, leaving the Hoos with a lot of new faces in contention for playing time this season and beyond. In fact, outside of Jake Snyder, Billy Schautz, and Will Hill, the rest of the players looking to earn snaps have received limited action thus far in their careers.
Chancellor (Fredericksburg, VA) offensive lineman Steven Moss has been offered by East Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina and Virginia Tech. Not bad, especially considering the fact that he's just a sophomore.
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