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Football
Another Smith Waits His Turn at Wideout
CHARLOTTESVILLE — UVa’s football team may one day roll out two Smiths at wide receiver — Tim and Bobby.
Both entered the University in 2009. Tim, a graduate of Chesapeake’s Oscar Smith High, played as a true freshman last year. Bobby, who graduated from Varina High, outside of Richmond, redshirted.
Tim Smith is already one of the Cavaliers’ top wideouts, though the 6-0 185-pound is dealing with an ankle injury that may cause him to redshirt this season.
Bobby Smith stands 6-5 and weighs 205 pounds. Brandon Hourigan, Virginia’s strength-and-conditioning coach for football, wants to add some muscle to that frame.
“Bobby Smith is a tall drink of water that Coach Hourigan is still beefing up a little bit,” Mike London said Monday.
So Smith is not a finished product. Even so, London would like to find a role for No. 85 this season.
“He’s a big, tall athlete,” London said. “That’s one of the things we spent time [during the bye week] figuring out, trying to find a role for a guy like Bobby Smith, even if it’s one or two things on the special teams.”
As a Varina senior, Smith caught 54 passes for 1,040 yards and 14 touchdowns, all school records. As an 11th-grader, he tied for seventh in the high jump — 6 feet, 4 inches — at the Group AAA track-and-field meet.
His debut as a UVa football player may well come Saturday afternoon. Virginia (1-1) hosts VMI (1-1) at 1:30 p.m. at Scott Stadium.