Walk-on placekicker near-perfect for U.Va.

By Doug Doughty

CHARLOTTESVILLE

Almost as noteworthy as Robert Randolph's 2008 kicking debut at Virginia was the canary-yellow suit he wore during his first meeting with the media.

"That'll be coming out again," Randolph said this week. "I've got a seersucker one as well."

Randolph's wardrobe Saturday had more of a charcoal tint to it, but his clothes weren't the story after a 20-9 victory over Maryland. His two field goals against the Terps lifted him to 9-for-9 this season and 12-for-13 for his career, including 11 in a row.

The U.Va. record for most consecutive field-goal attempts without a miss is 14, established by Jake McInerney in 1989.

Randolph attempted a 39-yarder that was blocked last year at North Carolina, or else he might be perfect.

Virginia couldn't reward him with a clothing contract - that would be prohibited by the NCAA - but the Cavaliers could put him on scholarship. Randolph came to Virginia in summer 2008 as an invited walk-on, and that status hasn't changed.

Coach Al Groh "hasn't approached me about it yet," Randolph said. "That's something I've definitely been working towards.

"I came here knowing that I'd have a chance to get playing and eventually earn a scholarship my second or third year."

Virginia already has a scholarship kicker in the program, redshirt sophomore Chris Hinkebein. Just as Randolph was joining the U.Va. program, the Cavaliers persuaded ex-soccer All-American Yannick Reyering to kick last season.

Reyering was still around last spring when the Cavaliers added another kicker, All-Tidewater selection Drew Jarrett from Virginia Beach. Reyering was gone by the fall, but Groh did not tip his hand until the season opener against William and Mary, when Hinkebein came out for kickoffs and Randolph handled field goals and extra points.

That's the way things remained until the fourth week of the season, when Jarrett started kicking extra points. Groh said this week that he thinks the competition has kept all of his kickers sharp, although Hinkebein's inconsistency on kickoffs has been a matter of some concern.

Two of Hinkebein's kickoffs sailed out of bounds against Indiana, at which point Groh summoned Randolph and advised him to "squib" the ball down the field.

Keeping the ball low hasn't been a problem for Randolph, a 5-foot-10-inch 160-pounder who played soccer for 15 years and was on soccer travel teams for 10 years

"That was my main sport, the thing I loved to do the most," said Randolph, who was a defender. "My high school coach actually came to a soccer game my sophomore year and asked me to kick in the spring.

"It was not something I'd aspired to do, but I had kicked a football before. When my coach asked me to do it, I definitely said I'd give it a try. "

Coach Bill Kramer also told Randolph that scholarship opportunities were greater in football than in soccer, where most of the grants are partials. By the time he was a junior at Naples High School, Randolph had won the kicking job for a team that went 15-0 and won the Florida Class 3A championship when he was a senior.

Randolph made 11 of 16 field-goal attempts as a senior and appeared headed to New Mexico State on a full scholarship before U.Va. entered the picture.

"It's a bigger school, and I definitely wanted to come to a bigger school," said Randolph, who preferred the academics at U.Va. and noted that Virginia "was closer to home."

Groh's chief concern with Randolph from the start was the height of his kicks, although that hasn't been a problem this season. The next frontier for Randolph is distance. His longest attempt in two seasons has been 42 yards, and his kickoffs do not approach the end zone. As a result, Randolph trained at a swimming pool this summer to improve his leg strength.

"You can look at him - there's not a lot of muscle mass there," Groh said. "Let's put it this way: They probably don't make those yellow suits in big-man sizes."