Cavs’ Jobe gets his reward

By Bart Isley

Published: August 17, 2008

In 2006, Scout tabbed Staton Jobe as a one-star recruit coming out of high school. One measly star.
Jobe didn’t let that label stick for long.
The Westlake High (Austin, Tex.) product just worked his way right up the depth chart at Virginia and into the starting lineup when Kevin Ogletree went down with a season-ending ACL tear. Jobe filled in admirably for Ogletree, hauling in 17 catches for 163 yards in the Cavaliers’ tight end dominated offense.
That’s more production than three of that 2006 class’ top 10 wideouts — Nos. 3, 5 and 7 according to Scout. Those heralded pass catchers got four or five stars next to their names. Jobe didn’t even get a scholarship.
That’s not a problem anymore. The Virginia staff awarded Jobe a scholarship during the offseason, meeting one in a series of goals the sophomore set for himself before coming to Virginia.
“Earning a scholarship was definitely one of my goals that I wanted to achieve in my career here,” Jobe said. “To finally accomplish that is a big step. It was really exciting.”
The sophomore clearly earned the scholarship with a lot of hard work and some clutch performances, including the game-winning touchdown against Georgia Tech. But Jobe is also extremely talented, particularly for a walk-on. He’s blessed with excellent speed (he was a three-time district champion in the 100 meters) and boasts a strong pedigree (both his father and brother played receiver for Texas Tech).
“He’s been thrown in the fire and handled himself well,” Ogletree said. “I’m always impressed with him, he works as hard as anyone.”
It also didn’t hurt that he played under the microscope in high school, where Westlake’s stadium seats over 10,000 and deep trips in the ultra-competitive Texas 5A high school playoffs are almost considered a birthright.
“It was a lot of fun playing down there and it was a really great experience playing in a community like that that values that football team,” Jobe said.
This year, Jobe will start the season behind Ogletree on the depth chart, but will clearly be a factor in the Cavaliers’ offensive plans.
“He’s much more comfortable, he knows the offense better, he’s much more confident and he’s doing a better job setting up his routes,” said Virginia receivers coach Wayne Lineburg. “He’s definitely shown a lot of improvement, and, obviously, playing 13 games last year certainly helped him.”
Jobe proved he was ready to contribute last season as a walk-on redshirt freshman, but now he’ll have to prove he’s worthy of that scholarship.
After last season it’s clear that one must doubt Jobe at their own peril — there’s a pretty good chance he’ll make that move by Virginia’s coaching staff seem like a wise one and further erase the memory of that one-star label.