Hodges Puts Manager's Duties on Hold
Story Links
April 6, 2010
10:28 a.m.
CHARLOTTESVILLE — For his first two years at UVa, Jacob Hodges was a student-manager on the football team. As a junior, he may be the Wahoos’ holder for extra points and field goals.
“You want a feel-good story? This could be it,” Anthony Poindexter, Virginia’s special-teams coordinator, said after practice Monday night.
Members of the student body were invited to try out for the team last month, and Hodges decided he’d like another role in the football program.
“He came out for the tryouts and said he could hold,” Poindexter recalled. “Lo and behold, he could hold.”
Hodges, a 5-11, 185-pound rising junior who wears jersey No. 27, is no football novice. His father, James Hodges, is a former coach at Halifax County High School. The younger Hodges starred at quarterback for Mountain View High in Stafford, where he also was the holder.
Vic Hall and Nathan Rathjen were Virginia’s holders last season, and both have moved on. Others working at that spot this spring include punter Jimmy Howell, but it’s not out of the question that Hodges could start.
“We have to go back and review at the end of spring ball,” Poindexter said, “but he’s pretty good, man. He can put it down.”
Want to see Hodges in action? Stop by Scott Stadium for UVa’s Spring Football Festival on Saturday afternoon. The intrasquad scrimmage will start at 2 p.m.