Training Camp Confidential -- Tim Smith

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)

Class: Fifth-year senior

Vitals: 6-0, 195-pound wide receiver

Hometown: Chesapeake (Oscar Smith High School)

2012 Statistics: 20 catches for 405 yards (20.3 average) and four touchdowns in nine games.

Career Statistics: 71 catches for 1,202 yards (16.9 average) and nine TDs in 35 games. His longest reception, 69 yards, came against Southern Mississippi as a true freshman in 2009. (He redshirted in 2010 after suffering an early-season injury.)

Outlook for 2013: Smith is expected to be one of UVa’s starting wideouts. He’s the only senior in the Cavaliers’ receiving corps.

“I need him to help the group come along a lot faster,” wide receivers coach Marques Hagans said Monday evening after the first practice of training camp. “Be a leader by example. Help the young guys when we’re not in meetings, when they have free time. Teach them how to study. Teach them how to take care of their bodies. Teach them how to eat. All those things that a veteran should do, he has to do this year. That will have the biggest impact on our group.

“It’s all about the legacy that he leaves now. This is his time to lead the group, and as long as he stays healthy, I’m expecting a big year from him. One thing about Tim is, he’s one of the hardest workers on the team, and that’s what I love about him.”

Top Priority: Nagging injuries have limited Smith’s effectiveness during his college career. So he tried something new this year.

“I cut back my offseason workouts,” Smith said. “I trained way too much, now that I think about it, last summer. I was probably working out two to three times a day, just trying to make myself as good as I could, and get in the best shape I could. But at the same time I felt like I might have pushed it too much, because in the game second game my hamstring was bothering me, and I felt like that all added up, from all the running, the working out, the lifting that I’d been doing the previous summer.”

This summer, Smith said, to his training program he “added more stretching and cold tub and rehabbing, even when I didn’t really need it.”

All-Purpose: At the ACC Football Kickoff last month in Greensboro, N.C., UVa head coach Mike London singled out No. 20, noting that, like Kris Burd before him, Smith is a willing and able blocker as well as a talented receiver.

“I’ve developed a lot,” Smith said. “I’m a pretty aggressive guy, so I don’t mind blocking and hitting people at all. That’s something that I got in my mind last year and just tried to get better at. Playing beside Burd, I know he was an aggressive guy. He didn’t mind blocking at all.

“Coming in, I just wanted the ball a lot, but being on this level, there’s more to it than just catching the ball. Developing over the years made me piece it all together.”