Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 15, 1995 TAG: 9511150076
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Maybe former Virginia kicker Kyle Kirkeide knew something when he gave up football this fall to concentrate on baseball.
Rafael Garcia is the Cavaliers' kicker, and Virginia coach George Welsh doesn't know what could happen to change that.
``Over the course of a year-and-a-half, he was by far our best kicker,'' Welsh said. ``Even if Kirkeide was still on the team and kicking better in practice, I wouldn't have changed.''
Some coaches might have been tempted when Garcia missed five of his first 12 field-goal attempts and even failed on a few point-after tries. After all, Kirkeide was at the games anyway, handing out programs with other members of the baseball team.
Garcia isn't sure what turned around his season, but he hasn't forgotten a conversation he had with Welsh after missing two field-goal attempts in Virginia's season-opening 18-17 loss to Michigan.
``After I missed those two, we didn't try a 49-yarder that would have put us ahead by eight,'' Garcia said. ``He said it wasn't that he didn't have confidence in me; he said it was a little long and he wanted to pin them inside the 20.
``For Coach Welsh to call me into his office [and] do something like that, it really meant a lot.''
It wasn't until the second half of the season that Garcia was able to reward Welsh's faith in him. He has made 13 of his past 14 field-goal attempts, including the past seven.
In the process, Garcia has broken the UVa record for field goals in a season (17) he established last year. He has 37 for his career, one short of the school record set by Wayne Morrison from 1979-82.
``I didn't know anything about it until Tiki Barber mentioned something four weeks ago,'' Garcia said. ``I was pretty surprised by that because I had only been kicking for two years.''
Garcia, a junior, did not attempt a field goal or extra point as a freshman in 1993, although he did take over kickoff responsibilities after the ninth game.
Welsh is reluctant to compare Garcia with Virginia's other kickers, including Michael Husted, who is in his third season with the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
``At this stage, he's not as good as Husted,'' Welsh said. ``That's as good as you're going to get - what Husted gave us as a senior. Obviously, he didn't kick as many field goals [13-for-16] because we scored more touchdowns.''
No Virginia kicker had attempted more than 20 field goals in a season until Garcia tried 22 last season. He is 20-for-26 this season and has an outside shot at Obed Ariri's ACC records for field goals made (23) and attempted (30), set in 1980 for Clemson.
Garcia is more than prolific, however. He has plenty of leg, witness eight field goals of 40 yards or longer this season.
``Garcia is not nervous,'' Welsh said. ``That's what we liked about him from the beginning. He's tough mentally. That doesn't mean he isn't going to miss some, though.''
Garcia never has kicked a field goal with a game on the line, although his 41-yarder Saturday gave Virginia a 21-11 lead over Maryland in a game it won 21-18.
``It's not that I'm not nervous,'' said Garcia, whose school-record 56-yarder gave UVa a short-lived lead with less than four minutes remaining at Texas. ``I'm as nervous as the next guy.
``It's the kind of nervousness that's good. I can't really describe it, [but] I love being in the pressure situations.''
Virginia Tech's visit to Virginia on Saturday will rekindle some fond memories for Garcia, who had a UVa-record five field goals last year in the Cavaliers' 42-23 victory over Tech in Blacksburg.
``Probably the thing I remember most was the first field goal, because that week I missed absolutely everything in practice,'' he said. ``It was like 10 [misses] out of 12, so my confidence wasn't that high.''
That game also was the first time Garcia's father, Rafael, had seen his son play. The younger Garcia enrolled at George Washington High School in Danville as an exchange student from Spain before his junior year.
Garcia's whole family was at the Michigan game in August and his father, who has been in Miami on business, will fly to Charlottesville for the game Saturday.
``He still doesn't know much about kicking - or football, for that matter,'' Garcia said. ``He knows when the ref goes like this [raises his arms], it's good.''
by CNB