Daniel Sparks opens the season with a kickoff for Virginia. ~ Photo by Kris Wright/TheSabre.com
Fans have grown accustomed to Daniel Sparks sailing punts through the air for the Virginia football team. He’s been the full-time punter for the Hoos for the past two seasons after all to the tune of 44.4 yards per attempt. That led to a second-team All-ACC campaign in 2022.
When the Hoos opened the season against Richmond last Saturday, however, Sparks began a new year with an additional job. He handled the kickoff duties for the Cavaliers in addition to the punts. For the day, he made 7 kickoffs with 5 touchbacks and an average of 63.7 yards per kick. Sparks reached the end zone with 6 kicks , but the Spiders ran one out and only reach the 20-yard line. He also hit 2 punts for an average of 54.5 yards per attempt.
Statistically, that stacks up as a 71.43% touchback rate. That tied for 46th in Week 1, but it represents a 36.95% jump over last season’s final number. If it holds for the season, that would move UVA from 102nd overall to somewhere inside the top 20 nationally based on last year’s standings. For the punts, Virginia sits No. 6 nationally with that 54.5 average.
In other words, as the Hoos chase improved performance on special teams this year, Sparks is going to have a heavy hand, well foot, in the outcome. Here are what some of the Wahoos had to say about Sparks’ role.
What They’re Saying About … Daniel Sparks
Virginia coach Tony Elliott
We hadn’t seen Daniel Sparks kick off and he was putting them 8 yards deep in the end zone a lot. Has he done that consistently in practice and how can he help that unit doing that?
“Got to be transparent. Man, I was scared to death based off of what was happening during camp. So early on, there’s no question about Sparks’ leg. It’s phenomenal. He’s got an extremely powerful leg. So we knew that we wanted him to work on kickoffs and so when we started practicing kickoffs, we almost couldn’t get a kick. He was 10 yards deep and, man, he was coming too fast, and, man, he was putting it over here to the left, [way] to the left. There was a stretch in our scrimmages where I think we had four kicks out of six total that went out of bounds – we were like, oh, Lord, what are we going to do? We said Sparky you’ve got to figure it out. We challenged him. What he did was he shortened his approach. That’s a great job by him and Drew Meyer and Coach [Keith] Gaither figuring out an answer.
We knew if he hit it right, it would go deep but we had issues pulling it to the left. When we shortened up took – like a golf swing … once we shortened it, he was able to consistently put them that deep. Really proud of him because he’s pulling double duty. The biggest thing I didn’t want, I didn’t want his kickoffs to take away from his punts. His punts, we feel if we can protect him, he’s a weapon for us.”
UVA defensive coordinator John Rudzinski
Daniel Sparks was kicking off and that influences where you take over for defense. When you know it’s going to be 8 yards in the end zone and you know it’s going to start at the 25, is there any advantage to that as a coordinator to kind of know exactly what’s coming so often?
“Yeah, goodness, Sparky’s a weapon. As a punter, [as a kicker] to be able to kick that ball through the end zone, and I think just collectively for us. The punt and those kickoffs, those are the first two plays of defense and I know that our team, we take a ton of pride as we look at our special teams. We’ve got to play complementary football and Sparky does an unbelievable job of kicking that ball and also naturally bringing leadership because he’s been a super productive specialist.”
Cavalier defensive tackle Jahmeer Carter
You mentioned leadership. Where does Daniel Sparks fit in? He’s an older guy but we don’t think about him much that way.
“Being a special teams player, I think leadership is important just because it is a third of the game. That’s an important part that some people may miss, but him being back there, he understands things have to get done a certain way to achieve the results that we want.”
I don’t think any of us knew what to expect with him kicking off, but he was putting them like 8 yards deep. How big of a deal is that for the special teams group?
“That’s a a huge deal. We see him every day, he’s preparing, and he’s working the best he can to make sure that ball is put out of the end zone if possible.”
Virginia receiver Malachi Fields
Daniel Sparks is an older guy on the team. We don’t really know a whole lot about him. How would you describe him as a teammate?
“He’s a great teammate. He’s always talking us up and saying what’s up. He’s just a good dude. He’s kind of quiet unless he’s around his group, but once you talk to him, he’s a cool dude.”
We didn’t know what to expect from those kickoffs because we hadn’t seen them really. He was putting the like 8 yards deep. That’s not surprising then?
“He’s got a boot for sure. No, not at all. He’s been doing it all camp. It was exciting to see that.”
How much does that help that unit?
“Greatly. Him putting it that far deep, it makes it harder for returns to happen so that’s huge.”
UVA receiver Trell Harris
Daniel Sparks was putting those kicks like 8 yards deep. How big of a weapon is that?
“I mean any time you win the hidden yardage, you’re most likely to win and helps close the margin on winning. Sparks is a great punter and has a boot on him. It definitely helped a lot [on any punts or kicks], push them back and me or Jonas [Sanker or whoever] can run down there and make the returner not want to run. That helps out the team a lot.”
