Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 23, 1993 TAG: 9304230044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
At the time, Ware never had played offensive tackle.
"I was going into my redshirt junior year [at Virginia] and I was going to be a tight end," said Ware, previously a defensive lineman. "I had spent the whole summer running and catching passes and keeping my weight down.
"Then, a week-and-a-half before camp, they called me up and said they were moving me to offensive tackle. To be honest with you, I kind of resented it."
He doesn't resent it now.
Ware, from William Fleming High in Roanoke, has been rated one of the top six offensive tackles available for the draft starting Sunday and has been told he could be drafted anywhere between the second and fourth round.
"I think I'm going to go in the fourth round," Ware said earlier this week. "I'm happy just to have a shot. At the beginning of the year, it looked like I might be a free agent. Then, when people said I might be a late-round pick, I thought that was pretty realistic."
It's almost certain that Ware will become the first Roanoke product to be drafted since Tom Pettigrew of Roanoke Catholic and Eastern Illinois was chosen by the Los Angeles Rams in the eighth round of the 1980 draft.
"That's a long time," Ware said. "It kind of shocks me because I think of Roanoke as a place with a lot of athletes. There were so many people with the potential to play [and] so many people who could play, but there was always something like family life or grades to get in the way."
Ware received plenty of direction from his family and he always had athletic ability - the same athletic ability that NFL scouts now find appealing. In basketball, he played for the 1987-88 Fleming team that handed Group AAA state champion Patrick Henry its only loss of the season.
"I guarded George Lynch every single time we played," said Ware, who held Lynch, then a junior, to a season-low four points in one of their meetings.
Unlike Lynch, who gained national attention at North Carolina, Ware toiled in relative obscurity until an injury to another player allowed him to become a starter midway through the 1991 season. He started the last 18 games of his career.
"If I'd gone back and played tackle for my whole career, maybe I'd be a first- or second-round pick," said Ware, who did not allow a sack as a senior, "but it's hard to sit back and judge the past when the present is going so well for you."
Ware knows that fourth-round picks can command an average salary between $200,000 and $250,000, but he has left negotiations to his agent Jim Steiner, who also represents former Virginia Tech offensive tackle Eugene Chung, the New England Patriots' first-round pick last spring.
"I would think, if I get drafted in the first four rounds, that I would have a pretty good chance of making the team," said Ware, who would become the first Roanoker since Rich McGeorge in 1978 to play in the NFL. "How could you justify cutting a second- or third-round pick?"
Although many of the top offensive tackles weigh 300 or more pounds, Ware has stayed close to his UVa playing weight of 285. His 405 pounds in the bench press was not one of the more impressive lifts at the National Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, but he showed his stamina by doing 24 repetitions at 225 pounds.
"Lincoln Kennedy [from Washington] weighed 358 pounds and I think that's why he dropped from the top-rated offensive tackle to No. 3," said Ware, listed at 6 feet 6. "My philosophy is to stay light for now and then let the team tell me what to weigh when I get to camp.
"A lot of teams tell me I have the potential to get bigger. Teams have been looking at me for both sides [left and right tackle], but I've had some teams tell me I could play guard because I have quick feet. I've never even played guard, but, then, I'd never played tackle before last year.
"I've been told this is the year for tackles. A lot of teams need offensive tackles."
Ware has no clue which team will choose him, although he has heard twice from the New York Jets and detects unusual interest from Kansas City. He recently visited Dallas and has worked out for scouts from 20 teams.
"Jim Hanifan of the Washington Redskins was here and he's like the god of offensive line coaches," Ware said. "I shook his hand and thought, `Wow, Jim Hanifan is here to see .' "
Ware plans to watch the draft at the home of his father, David Sr., who now lives in Maryland. David Jr. also spends time when not at school with his mother and stepfather, Jeannette and Calvin Murrell, who still live in Roanoke.
The fifth-year senior said he delayed graduation in order to remain on scholarship for five years and needs only three courses this spring for a degree in drama. Upon graduation, he also hopes to have certification to teach.
"It feels nice to have people paying attention to you," said Ware, who did as many or more interviews this week than some of his more-celebrated teammates. "I haven't been in the limelight.
"There's a lot more pressure on Terry Kirby and Chris Slade. They're being mentioned as second-round picks and they'll be expected to produce right away and be paid accordingly. Really, unless I stink it up, I have nothing to lose."
by CNB