Howell steps in for Cavs

By Chip Knighton

Published: August 15, 2008

Last season had its share of fantastic finishes for the Virginia football team, but the 2007 Cavaliers had nothing on their 1995 counterparts.
That year, UVa had several games come down to the final play, including a memorable last-second stop of Florida State running back Warrick Dunn that helped force a tie for the conference title between the Cavs and the Seminoles.
UVa coach Al Groh is quietly building for a repeat performance. His son, Mike, was the quarterback on the 1995 team and is now the Cavaliers’ offensive coordinator. And he hopes he’s found the heir apparent to an often-overlooked member of that squad.
That year, the Cavaliers controlled field position with Will Brice, a tall, strong-legged punter from South Carolina. While competition is still open to replace the punting duo of Ryan Weigand and Chris Gould, the frontrunner bears more than a passing resemblance to Brice.
Jimmy Howell, a 6-foot-6, 238-pound true freshman from Florence, S.C., is one of three punters on the UVa roster, joining senior John Thornton and sophomore Nathan Rathjen. Howell is the Cavs’ only scholarship punter and may have the inside track to the starting position.
“I knew I was going to have to come in here and compete just like anybody else coming in,” Howell said. “No matter where I went, I was going to have to do the same thing.”
Howell averaged 43 yards per punt as a senior at West Florence High, earning first-team all-state honors. He also started at quarterback and kicker and lettered in soccer and basketball for the Knights.
He originally committed to Northwestern before the offer came in from the Cavaliers, but the choice between Central Virginia’s mild climate and Chicago’s freezing winds was an easy one.
Howell didn’t take long to jump on the scholarship offer, which came after San Diego native Matt Zubyk decommitted from UVa (he signed with Stanford instead). The late offer was standard operating procedure for high school special-teams standouts.
“We get recruited later in our senior years,” Howell said. “They’re going to have to see everything from a freshman to a senior, how good you are and how consistent. It is different than a lot of these guys getting offered as sophomores from other positions.”
While Howell’s offer came relatively late in the game, UVa coaches had been watching him for a while.
“Jimmy came to our campus as a junior or sophomore and that was our first exposure to him,” said UVa special teams coach Bob Diaco. “He had a nice camp and did a good job, and as you look into Jimmy Howell’s other attributes and characteristics, they’re all pluses. You go through his high school, he’s got a solid transcript. Everybody’s talking about him and it’s all raves.”
The transition from high school to Division I can be a tough one for all players. Howell, like most freshmen, will need to speed up his motion to get kicks off against teams like Southern California, which visits Scott Stadium on Aug. 30.
“Typically, they’ll need to operate a little faster in terms of the amount of time they have the ball in their hand before it hits their foot,” Diaco said. “They also need to operate a little bit shorter in terms of the space that’s traveled from the point they catch the ball to the launch point. That’s what needs to happen.”
While the speed adjustment could keep some freshmen off the field, Howell appears poised to start against the Trojans. He’s confident that he can help the Cavs win the field position battle against the toughest competition the NCAA has to offer.
“I’m just doing whatever I can to help out the team,” he said. “Them bringing me in here just shows me that they have some confidence. I’m just ready to help everybody out and they’re ready to help me.”