Was scanning some pre-season football material on my Hoos when this line caught my eye:
"The next three tailbacks on the roster might all be more flashy than Jones... Zack Vrhovac was imported from the cross country & track teams, which might be a case of London taking the “running” in running back a little too seriously. Vrhovac’s claim to fame? Finishing 244th at the 2010 NCAA Cross Country Championship."
Has anyone else noticed this? Has this been brought up on the boards at all?
Vrhovac is indeed listed on the UVA football roster as a Tailback for this upcoming season according to the UVA website. It certainly appears to be the same guy who was UVA's 7th man at NCAA's back in November. He definitely appears to be a Mid-D specialist which implies some natural speed, but I wonder: has anyone else run in the NCAA XC meet and played major conference college football? I think a Notre Dame 800 runner played kicker or something maybe 10 years ago, but I don't think that guy ran top 7 in cross and he certainly didn't play a traditional skilled football position. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Will be interesting to see what an aerobically developed 800 runner could do in major college football. I imagine he has traded long summer base runs and fall tempo runs for gassers and low-reps/heavy weight training. You would figure that an 800 runner who had the muscle composition to play TB at this level couldn't become a legit cross runner, but he apparently was to make UVAs top 7, right? Looks like he was a solid high school football player too.
Hopefully he gets on the field sometime this season because I think this is a really cool display of range across sports. On the other hand, he is leaving a top 10-15 team for a team picked to finish in the bottom 3rd of the ACC (he also figures to come in low on the depth chart), but hey, it IS BCS conference football. I wonder if he will come back to running track in the spring or if he is going with football full-time.