Deyon Williams will have surgery on Friday. |
Virginia’s football team hit the field Tuesday for its first day of practice in full pads and it didn’t take long for bad news to bite the team. Coach Al Groh told reporters in an afternoon teleconference that senior receiver and captain Deyon Williams has a stress fracture in his foot that will require surgery.
Williams will have the surgery on his right foot Friday; a timetable for his return is undetermined, though 6 to 8 weeks seems like a reasonable guess.
“Deyon Williams has a stress fracture in his foot and will undergo surgery on Friday and his return from that is undetermined,” Groh said. “. I feel bad for Deyon, but Deyon’s attitude is ‘Don’t feel sorry for me.’ That’s what he told the players and ‘Let’s get going’ so that’s what we’re doing.”
Groh said that Williams hadn’t really showed any signs of the injury during the first few days of practice, which opened on Friday evening. However, Williams complained of a little bit of soreness in an area that led Dr. David Diduch, the team’s orthopedic surgeon, to order an x-ray. That’s when the unfortunate news was revealed.
“He really hadn’t. He looked real good. These injuries seem to be most common amongst basketball players, running backs, and wide receivers – that is fairly good-sized athletes that make lots of full speed cuts.” Groh said. “He just complained of a little bit of soreness there, not an appreciable amount. Dr. [David] Diduch was very alert in, given the area that Deyon pointed out, having an x-ray taken and that’s what the x-ray showed.”
The injury is a disappointing setback for a player with professional football aspirations. He was focused on improving his craft in order to make himself a better player at Virginia while also increasing his chances at making the NFL. Groh talked about Williams’ growth and attributes at Friday’s first fall press conference.
“Big, fast, tough. Works hard and he’s got a lot of ambition. That’s a lot to like right there,” Groh said. “Tremendous focus through the spring, through the summer. I went by one of the meeting rooms last [Thursday] night – I saw some lights on – to close up, to make sure everything was locked up and there was Deyon at about 9 o’clock at night watching tape. He’s really matured as a player. Deyon’s a young man who really shows the benefits of being in college and maturing in all aspects, getting focused, and learning the things that are necessary to be successful. He’s really done a commendable job with that.”
Groh indicated that Williams really had focused on improving his non-catching skills like blocking, route-running, and other complete player concepts.
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“Deyon’s been very intent on working his game in all aspects like that,” Groh said Friday. “So whether he catches 45 passes this year or 75 passes this year, Deyon’s had a great focus, a great work ethic on moving his game along in every aspect of, I guess the way to say it is, being a real football player and not just a receiving specialist. … 58 catches is good. I know he’s got his sights set on doing a lot of things with his game to improve himself in many areas. Obviously, he’s a player that has long-range aspirations and he understands to accomplish that, it’s about a lot more than catches.”
The number of catches and statistical production shows just how tough Williams’ loss is for the Cavaliers, though. He hauled in 58 catches for 767 yards and 7 touchdowns last year. Williams, 6’3”/185 pounds, also finished second in the ACC in receptions per game. Williams needs less than 700 yards to reach sixth on the all-time receiving yards list at Virginia.
Replacing that sort of noticeable production is not as easy as rotating someone else into the slot, though the Cavaliers do have depth at the receiver position. Fellow senior Fontel Mines , juniors Emmanuel Byers and Theirrien “Bud” Davis, and sophomores Kevin Ogletree , Andrew Pearman , Maurice Covington , and Tulane transfer Cary Koch all have game experience. Groh said that the “position will be open to Ogletree, Bud Davis, or anybody else that wants to lay claim to it.”
Of course, those players combined for 63 catches, 690 yards, and 2 TDs at UVa last season. Take out Mines, Williams’ fellow starter, and the numbers drop to 35 catches, 345 yards, and 0 touchdowns.
But as Groh has emphasized at least twice already in this preseason, sheer numbers aren’t always the key to finding a productive receiver. So expect the player who shines in the non-catching categories to receive – pun intended – increased playing time, even if that player doesn’t get the starting nod. After all, Groh has clearly indicated this spring that those ‘other’ vastly important things are something that teams are looking for in a receiver.
“The number of catches a wide receiver has can be very distracting in terms of his value to a team. If a wide receiver catches eight balls a game in college, that’s a lot of catches – it’s close to a 100-catch season. If those are the only hundred plays in which he’s valuable to the offense, he doesn’t really have a very good batting average,” Groh said. “That’s what teams look for in receivers.”
“You only get so many opportunities to make a play at that position so when the opportunity comes, a player has to be the kind of guy that he can make a play at that moment. We’re not going to throw 24 balls at the X receiver in the game. It’s just doesn’t happen that way – it’s going to be eight, nine, ten, seven passes going that direction so a guy has to be able to make a play when those occasions come up or else he’s had a very low production game.” Groh added. “Even with seven or eight catches, if those are his only good plays, if those are the only plays he’s really contributing to the offense, then all the other plays you’re playing with 10 guys. Whether it’s how he runs his routes in order not to only get himself open but to get other players open or how he blocks for the running game … all those things [are important].”
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