www.roanoke.com

When walk-on Matt Snyder went deep for a pass late in Virginia’s 2008 spring game, I’ll confess that I wondered if the Cavaliers were trying to catch the attention of his uncommitted younger brother, Jake.

It was more significant this past Saturday when Matt Snyder caught five passes for 55 yards and there was no need to impress Jake, a promising defensive lineman who signed a letter-of-intent with the Cavaliers in February.

There is a much younger Snyder brother, Will, but I doubt the Cavaliers had any ulterior motives Saturday. There is a good chance that Matt Snyder will see action for the Cavaliers, particulary now that they are in a “spread” formation that frequently will employ four wide receivers.

“This isn’t the last time his uniform will be dirty,” said UVa head coach Al Groh after Snyder caught five passes for 55 yards. “He’s the same guy every day: high energy, precise in what he does, very coachable, makes progress with what the coaches give him. Those are talents as well as ‘run fast.’

“Some players who run really fast, they have a hard time processing information. They don’t get any better. This kid gets better all the time. Through two falls, with him basically working against our defense, we’ve seen the same type of guts and same type of constant effort, but now he’s got a little more refinement to his game.”

Snyder, a 6-foot-4, 205-pounder, caught 67 passes as a senior at Deep Run High School in the Richmond suburb of Glen Allen and was named second-team All-Group AAA. He arrived at Virginia as an invited walk-on but did not participate in preseason practice after sustaining a broken collarbone in the 2007 VHSCA all-star game.

While Snyder was a prolific wide receiver at Deep Run, he apparently developed some blocking skills that have served him well in Virginia’s new offense.

“When you’re running the ball and there’s four wide receivers in the game, as opposed to having a tight end in the game, there’s still the same number of defensive players who have to be blocked," Groh said.

“And somebody has to take over the block that the missing tight end had. That somebody has to to be one of those receivers. If the receivers don’t block enthusiastically and don’t block effectively, then it’s going to be difficult to do business out on the perimeter, which is where most of the yardage gets gained.

“He is one of the players who gives us a chance to do a good job with that.”

AT A NORMAL VIRGINIA game, there is enough time before the snap to get all of the Virginia starters, which is the 11 players on either the offense or defense.

In a spring game, of course, there are 22 players running on the field at the same time and it’s hard to identify all of them before the ball is snapped.

I do believe the offense started the game in a four-wide set and that the receivers were a trio of redshirt sophomores – Snyder, Jared Green and Kris Burd – joined by redshirt freshman Javaris Brown.

Green had 12 receptions last year and Burd had seven. Snyder and Brown did not play,

Tight ends Joe Torchia and Colter Phillips combined for four receptions Saturday, although I noticed Phillips in the slot on several occasions, so I can’t provide a breakdown on which receptions came with Torchia and Phillips tight to the line and which came with them spread out.

Junior Dontrelle Inman, probably the most experienced of Virginia’s wide receivers, was in uniform but did not play as an injury-related precaution. Walk-on Staton Jobe, who started 12 of 13 games and had 17 receptions as a redshirt freshman in 2007, did not start but had three receptions.

Suffice to say, there should be plenty of competition in the fall, when SuperPrep All-American Tim Smith will head up an incoming receiving group that will include 6-2, 205-pound Kevin Royal and 6-6, 200-pound Bobby Smith.

Groh stopped during his postgame news conference to praise the speed of two other newcomers, Lovante Battle and Javanti Sparrow, and said that Sparrow could end up on offense. Also, while Quintin Hunter from Orange County might get a look at quarterback, he originally was recruited as an “athlete.”

Share/Save