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Football
Hoskey Eyes Opportunity in Secondary
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Drequan Hoskey picked an excellent time to join UVa’s football program.
Hoskey, a 6-0, 163-pound true freshman from Henrico High School, has been practicing with the Wahoos for about a week. He’s a cornerback, and that’s a position at which UVa is frighteningly thin.
Virginia has only five scholarship corners — seniors Ras-I Dowling and Mike Parker, junior Chase Minnifield, sophomore Devin Wallace and true freshman Rijo Walker — and one of them (Parker) is sidelined with an injury.
Hoskey is best known for his prowess in track and field. As a Henrico High senior, he won the 55-meter hurdles at the Group AAA state indoor meet, and he’s attending UVa on a track scholarship.
He also starred in football at Henrico, however, and UVa coach Mike London said Wednesday that he and his staff are “trying to assess and see whether or not [Hoskey] can help us. He can run. I know some of his background.”
Indeed, when he was head coach at the University of Richmond, London recruited Hoskey. Academic deficiencies seemed likely to keep Hoskey from enrolling at UVa, but “he rectified those things and got admitted here to Virginia through our track program,” London said.
If Hoskey ends up playing football for the Wahoos, he’ll be considered one of the 85 scholarship players the NCAA allows each Football Bowl Subdivision team to have.
However things go for Hoskey on the football field, look for him to compete in UVa coach Jason Vigilante’s track program, along with another first-year defensive back, Pablo Alvarez.
Of the Cavaliers’ true freshmen, offensive tackle Morgan Moses definitely will play this season, London said. There may be others.
“I think there’s a couple of guys that are just on the fringe of whether or not we need them to play,” London said.
“You’d like to take your freshmen, and you’d like to redshirt as many as you can … [But] sometimes your depth situation dictates that you have to play a young man back in the secondary.”
London’s predecessor as head coach, Al Groh, played 14 true freshmen in 2009.