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Nov. 30, 2006
Charlottesville, Va. – Virginia defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald has been named to the Rivals.com first-team Freshman All-America squad.
Seeing his most significant action since his junior year of high school three years ago, Fitzgerald burst onto the collegiate scene this fall. A redshirt freshman from Richomond, he started all 12 games for Al Groh’s Cavaliers, and helped UVa’s defense rank 20th nationally this season. The Cavaliers gave up an average of 289.5 yards per game, their lowest average in 27 years.
Fitzgerald averaged 5.3 tackles per game this season, tops in the nation among freshmen linemen and 18th among all freshmen. He led the team with six sacks, the third most by a UVa freshmen, and ranked third nationally among freshmen. He also shared the team lead with 12 tackles for loss, fourth among all rookies and third-most in a season by a UVa freshman.
In addition to his 64 tackles, he recovered two fumbles, caused another fumble, broke up three passes and was credited with 14 QB hurries. In a shutout of Duke in late September, he returned a fumble 23 yards for a touchdown and intercepted a pass.