Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 5, 1995 TAG: 9509070025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
``He came up to me and said, `If you're going to kick off, you can't punt too much because you'll get tired,''' Brice related. ``I told him, `I do it [kick off] with a different leg. That one's not tired at all.'
``I think he knew, but he just forgot.''
It's a good thing for Brice that he hadn't forgotten how to kick off, a chore he last performed in a game in 1991, when he was a senior at Lancaster (S.C.) High School.
UVa football coach George Welsh said Monday that he currently plans to use Brice and Rafael Garcia on kickoffs Saturday, when the Cavaliers visit N.C. State at 4 p.m.
Garcia has handled kickoffs for Virginia since the 1993 season and also kicks field goals and extra points. Brice had been kicking the ball deeper and higher than Garcia in practice, but had not kicked off in a college game before he did it twice against William and Mary.
``It's a whole new world once you get out there,'' said Brice, who conceded that he had kicked off only twice in live-ball situations in practice. ``I was standing out there and thinking, `Oh, no, what's this?' It had been so long.''
Brice made second-team All-ACC last year as a punter, when only 11 of his 55 punts were returned, for a total of 18 yards. Opponents already have 30 yards in punt returns after two games, although Brice does not sense that the kicking has affected his punting.
``That's one of the things coach Welsh talked to me about specifically,'' Brice, a 6-foot-5, 204-pound junior, said. ``If it had anything to do with my punting, he wasn't even going to let me attempt it. That's why, when I first got here, they wouldn't let me kick.''
There are plenty of kicking specialists who punt and kick, but Brice is the only one who is known to do it with different feet. He said there was no conscious decision to punt left-footed and kick right-footed.
``I really don't have an explanation,'' he said. ``The only thing I would say is that, when I started out punting, I was also playing soccer and my left foot was my dominant foot. I'm left-handed, too, which helped because I drop the ball with my left hand. But, by the time I started kicking, my right foot had become my dominant foot.''
STREAK INTACT: N.C. State was the opponent when Virginia last failed to intercept a pass, Oct.30, 1993. Since then, the Cavaliers have had interceptions in 18 consecutive games, a streak that was preserved Saturday on Percy Ellsworth's pickoff against William and Mary.
It was the fifth interception in the last four regular-season games for Ellsworth, a senior free safety. Oddly, Ellsworth had one interception in the first 25 games of his college career, a drought that ended when he picked off two Maurice DeShazo passes last year against Virginia Tech.
GATHMAN OUT: Welsh said starting center Dave Gathman will miss this week's game and could be out much longer if he requires knee surgery. Converted guard Tom Locklin, a 6-4, 284-pound junior, will take his place. ... Tight end Bobby Neely is expected back after missing the William and Mary game with a sprained ankle.
SPECIAL FRESHMEN: Defensive tackle Johnny Shivers and linebacker Andre McNeal have become the third and fourth ``true'' freshmen to play for the Cavaliers. Welsh said McNeal (6-1, 194) has such good athletic ability that UVa may risk a year's eligibility to use him exclusively on special teams.
WARE WARY: Ex-UVa offensive lineman David Ware, waived by Kansas City on the next-to-last week of the preseason, was in Roanoke this past weekend and said he has rejected an offer from the Philadelphia Eagles.
Ware, who went to William Fleming High School, has lost 54 pounds from a preseason high of 304 pounds and said he is interested in becoming a sales representative for a sporting goods manufacturer. He was in camps with but never played in a regular-season game for the New York Jets, Miami and Kansas City.
ODDS AND ENDS: Virginia has won its last 11 home openers, including a 40-16 triumph Saturday over William and Mary. The Cavaliers are 12-2 in home openers during Welsh's tenure. ... UVa has held the opposition without a first-quarter touchdown in 13 of the last 16 games, including both games this year. ...Patrick Jeffers' two receptions Saturday gave him 76 for his career, most by a Cavaliers' walk-on. Jeffers has been nominated for the Fred Biletnikoff Award that goes to the nation's top receiver.
by CNB