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It’s good to be back at the keyboard ladies and gentlemen. I’ve
certainly missed it and for my latest article, I’ve decided to unveil
my top 10 list of favorite Virginia Cavalier football players of
all-time, certainly not an easy task for somebody who is as big of a
Virginia football fan as myself. I’ve been a die-hard fan for 18 years
now and I think my attachment to Virginia Cavalier football only gets
stronger and stronger as the years pass me by. Sure, the Cavaliers
always manage to deal their fans a rather devastating dose of
heartbreak, but that will never stop fans like me coming back for more.
I still follow Virginia football recruiting very intensely and I’ll
still jump at the chance to crown who the next Virginia football greats
will be at their respective positions, (Ras-I Dowling, CB), (Peter
Lalich, QB), just to name a few. Anyways, let’s get down to business
shall we! I’ll start with numbers 10 through 6 this week, then I’ll
countdown from 5 to 1 sometime in the next week and a half.

 Former Virginia receiver Tyrone Davis was one of the best "big-play" threats in Virginia football history.

10.
WR-Tyrone Davis-Tyrone Davis automatically jumps into this list because
I have a personal story to share about him that I will never forget as
long as I live. Anyways, Tyrone Davis, statistically, did more than his
fair share of snagging passes while he was in Charlottesville and was
one of the most decorated wideouts in school history. After it was all
said and done, Davis racked up enough total yardage to land a spot in
the top 5 receivers in Virginia football history, 2,153 yards to be
exact, which placed him fourth on the Cavaliers’ all-time receiving
leaders’ list. Nicknamed TD, Davis was one of the best big play
receivers in school history not named Herman Moore, a legendary
receiver he drew comparisons to early his freshman year at UVA. "I
never thought people were expecting too much when they began comparing
me to Herman so quickly,” Davis said. TD was a very fitting nickname
for a receiver whose first catch in Orange and Blue was against Duke, a
72-yard touchdown catch. In 1993, 21 of his 23 catches went for either
a touchdown or a first down. The South Boston, Virginia native will
forever be remembered as one of the best deep threats in Virginia
football history, something the Cavaliers haven’t seen in over a decade
since Davis left.

Anyways, the story I have about Tyrone Davis
comes during the 1994 Poulan Independence Weed-Eater Bowl. It was late
December of that year and me, my father, and my brother were staying at
the Sheraton in Shreveport, Louisiana, the site of the game. The
Cavaliers were set to square off against TCU and we liked our chances
of winning the game. This was a few years before TCU became the TCU of
today, long before a legend named LaDanian Tomlinson danced on the
gridiron in Fort Worth.

I was 11 years old and I was just fired
up to get to see a different area of the country. We were staying in
the same hotel as the Virginia players and coaches, so naturally I was
fired up about that. Every time I was walking through the hotel, I was
looking around to see if I would recognize anybody. Then one day before
the game, me and my father were standing looking at this bulletin and
this giant was towering beside me, reading the bulletin. He happened to
be around 6 feet, 5 inches tall to be exact. I recognized his face from
a newspaper article I had read a few days earlier and as soon as it hit
me I started jumping up and down throwing my hands in the air. I asked
the man, "You’re Tyrone Davis aren’t you?" He smiled back at me and
said, "I sure am, how’s it going little man?" So me and my father
talked with him for a while and after that experience with Tyrone
Davis, my entire trip was complete. Of course, there was still the game
that had to be played. Well I had bought the last bowl poster
available, thinking I would be able to get some of the players to sign
it for me.

Former Virginia defensive end Mike Frederick loved to show a little
skin when he suited up for the Cavs, even if the temperature was near
freezing and it was pouring rain.

The game conditions were
downright horrendous. It was December 28th, 1994 and the game was being
playing at night, under the lights. It had to have been 32 degrees and
pouring rain the entire game. Virginia defensive end Mike Frederick
wasn’t fazed, I’ll never forget him having his jersey pulled up
half-way to where his belly was exposed when the Cavaliers were warming
up before kickoff. The Cavaliers ended up grinding out a 20-10 victory
after a solid performance by their defense and running back Kevin
Brooks. Late in the game, Tyrone Davis even had a big touchdown catch
to put the game away for the Cavaliers. It was picture perfect. After
the game at the hotel, the players were hauling in Domino’s pizza boxes
for what seemed like forever.

Former Virginia quarterback Symmion Willis even signed my poster after the game.

I
was walking around to all of the players getting their autographs, guys
like Tiki Barber, Ronde Barber, Symmion Willis, and many others, when I
still hadn’t gotten Tyrone Davis’ autograph. Make no mistake about it,
his autograph, would make both the poster and the story complete. So
finally, Davis strolls in late and my dad and a bunch of other Uva fans
huddled around him and pointed to the poster and said, "You better
write him a term paper, he’s been waiting for you all night!" Anyways,
Davis just smiled and laughed. He signed the poster, "To Wade: Best
Wishes, Tyrone Davis." To this day, I’ve never forgotten that story and
that poster rests up in my room in a glass frame. I think it ranks as
my prize possession above any of my other sports memorabilia, simply
because of the encounter with Davis.

His career in the pros
didn’t end up being the greatest, but he still lasted eight years in
the league as a 265-pound tight end, first for the New York Jets, then
the Green Bay Packers. He was certainly a solid tight end for the
Packers, in one season he even snagged 7 touchdowns for the Cheeseheads.

Regardless
of his pro career, Tyrone Davis will always have a soft spot in my
heart because of the story above. I wish I could write him and let him
know how much that day meant to me, because it was truly special.
Wherever he is, I’d like to extend my thoughts out to Tyrone Davis and
let him know that I hope he is doing well wherever he is in life. To
earn a spot on my top 10 UVA football player list, well that is no easy
accomplishment ladies and gentlemen. Tyrone Davis will always be one of
my personal favorite Virginia Cavaliers, that is for sure.

Former Virginia receiver Herman Moore was one of the greatest receivers in Virginia football and Detroit Lions’ history.

9.
WR-Herman Moore-I’m not going to lie to you, when Herman Moore finished
his career at Virginia in 1991, I was eight years old. I definitely
don’t remember much from his college career at Virginia, but I do
remember seeing those classic orange uniforms with the black and orange
stripe on the helmet. I’ve seen highlights of his career and I do
remember watching the Heisman Trophy presentation when he and
quarterback Shawn Moore were finalists. The Danville, Virginia native
is in my opinion, the greatest receiver in Virginia football history.
He is the gold standard by which every other great Virginia receiver
will be compared. He was unstoppable at catching the deep ball and with
his size(6’4) and leaping ability(he was a state high-jump champion in
high school) it was easy to see why. Moore was one of those players
where the ball just seemed to stick to his hands, regardless of the
situation. He had hands made of velcro.

I loved watching him
play for the Detroit Lions and he and Barry Sanders were two of the
biggest reasons I became a very big Lions fan in the middle of the
’90s. You could make the argument that Moore deserves to be in the Hall
of Fame, but I don’t think he will ever get in because he didn’t
perform at a very high level for an extended period of time.

Herman Moore outraces a Chicago Bears defender in 1995.

Still,
you’d be hard pressed to find many receivers out there that posted the
numbers that Moore did throughout his NFL career. The track phenom
teamed with Brett Perriman to form one of the best receiving duos in
NFL history. He was selected to four pro bowls from 1994-1997 and
became just the second player besides Jerry Rice to record three
100-catch seasons. In his best season in 1995, he caught a career high
123 passes(an NFL record at the time). The legendary Lion wrapped up
his 12 year NFL career with 670 receptions for 9,174 yards and 62
touchdowns.

Make no mistake about it folks, when it comes to
6 foot 4 Herman Moore, there are very few receivers that will ever be
as universally respected as him at the receiver position. He’s very
deserving of the nine spot on this list. I own an authentic version of
his Lions jersey, so it would be downright blasphemous if he didn’t
land on this list.

Former Virginia linebacker Rich Bedesem returns an interception against
Akron. He was recently named a defensive graduate assistant on the
Virginia football coaching staff.

8. Rich Bedesem-LB-Rich
Bedesem’s father and grandfather were both football coaches, so it
should not be suprising that Bedesem had what head coach Al Groh called
a great "football radar." This guy just had amazing instincts. I don’t
know if I’ll ever see another Virginia linebacker with instincts like
Bedesem. He wasn’t the fastest and might not have been the strongest,
but boy could Rich Bedesem bring the wood like nobody else. I’ll never
forget the hit he layed on a UNC quarterback. Starting quarterback
Darian Durant had just injured his right thumb and Florida transfer
C.J. Stephens came into the game. Stephens dropped back and got
absolutely leveled by Rich Bedesem, in what was one of the hardest hits
I’ve ever seen dished out by a Virginia football player. He didn’t win
any awards or reel in any post-season hardware, but make no mistake
about it, the Council Rock(Pa.) standout was arguably one of the most
underrated players in Virginia football history. One of his best
performances came against N.C. State in 2002, when he racked up a
team-leading 13 tackles and 2 tackles for loss. Former Washington Post
Virginia beat writer Jim Reedy named Bedesem as the number 1 most
underrated player of the Virginia football 2003 squad. Bedesem even
tore his right ACL twice while at UVA and still put up pretty solid
career numbers. He also had to deal with the likes of specimens such as
Ahmad Brooks and Kai Parham trying to steal his starting spot,
something he eventually conceded, but he was able to hold off Parham
for much longer than many other linebackers could have. Simply put,
Bedesem was a warrior who gave it his all out there on the gridiron and
I loved watching him play. He’s very deserving of the number eight spot
on this list.

I could very easily put Heath Miller much higher on this list, but
tough decisions have to be made when making a list like this. The
former signal-caller has some of the softest hands you will ever see on
any tight end.

7. Heath Miller-Former Virginia tight end Heath
Miller had the best hands of any Virginia football player I have ever
seen in my life. As head coach Al Groh once said, "He’s one of those
players where the ball seems to stick to his hands." You really can’t
explain it, but the former signal-caller was a natural born pigskin
catcher. The Honaker, Virginia native entered Virginia as one of the
more decorated signal callers in the state, but left school as the
greatest tight end in school and ACC history. He was signal-caller Matt
Schaub’s favorite target and with good reason. Whenever he would get in
trouble, "Big Money" was always there. If it was a clutch situation in
which the Cavaliers wanted to move the sticks, Miller would always end
up being wide open somewhere on the field. I don’t know if I’ll ever
see a Virginia tight end be as good at getting open as Heath Miller
was. He was remarkably good at finding the soft spot in the zones of
the defense.

Heath Miller was named the Group A Offensive Player of the Year after
his senior year in high school. Many people don’t realize he passed for
over 1,500 yards and rushed for over 900 yards during his senior season
as a quarterback for Honaker High School.

After it was all said
and done, Miller was the proud owner of the record in three major
receiving categories for tight ends in not only Virginia history, but
ACC history as well: receptions(144), yards(1703), and touchdowns(20)
in a career. I’ll never forget the performance he posted against the
hated Virginia Tech Hokies in 2004 in Scott Stadium. The Cavaliers kept
feeding Miller the ball the entire game and he abused the Hokie
secondary all afternoon long to the tune of 13 catches for 145 yards.
The Cavaliers won that game 35-21 and you would be lying to yourself
that without the monster performance from Heath Miller that the ‘Hoos
would have prevailed in that contest. Miller had a few plays in his
Virginia career that few other tight ends in the country would ever be
able to make: his beautifully lofted 20-yard touchdown pass to Pat
Estes against South Carolina in 2002, his leaping catch in the end zone
against Duke in 2003, his pylon dive from the five yard line in the
Clemson game in 2004, and his one-handed touchdown grab against Miami
in 2004. He was awarded the Mackey Award in 2004, given to the nation’s
top tight end. He was also named a unanimous first-team All-American,
becoming only the second player in Virginia football history to do so.
Of all the honors, awards, and stats that Heath Miller piled up,
perhaps this last statistic is the most impressive: he caught at least
one pass in 32 of his final 33 games.

The more times Ben Roethlisberger can feed Heath Miller the football, the more good things will happen for the Steelers!

In
2005, he went on to get drafted in the first round by the Pittsburgh
Steelers with the 30th pick. During his rookie season he snagged 39
receptions for 459 yards and six touchdowns. In 2006, he hauled in 34
passes for 393 yards and five touchdowns. In 2007, his numbers exploded
after offensive coordinator Bruce Arians’ newly implemented scheme
helped him tremendously. He grabbed 47 passes for 566 yards and 7
touchdowns, all three career highs for "Big Money". The Steelers should
find ways to get Heath Miller the rock as often as possible, because
this guy simply does not drop the football. He’ll always have a soft
spot in my heart as one of my favorite Virginia Cavalier football
players ever. He was a class act, never complained, never ran his
mouth, and never got injured. As good of a football player as he was, I
think he is every bit as good of a person. Look for "Big Money" only to
do bigger and bigger things for the Steelers in the NFL.

Marques Hagans single handedly lead his Cavaliers to victory over the
Florida State Seminoles in 2005 at Scott Stadium, with the ‘Hoos
prevailing 26-21 because of his heroics. It was a game that will likely
go down as the best performance by a Virginia quarterback in school
history. Perhaps the biggest compliment to Hagans came in the post-game
press conference from legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden,"I’ve
never seen a quarterback make as many one-man plays as he made
tonight," Bowden said.

6. Marques Hagans-Nicknamed "Biscuit",
anybody that regularly read my columns on thewagononline.com should not
be surprised to find Marques Hagans on this list. I was constantly
defending the fleet-footed signal-caller in my articles and Virginia
fans were constantly criticizing him, but he shut all of his critics up
in his final season as a Virginia Cavalier. He was an absolute warrior
on the gridiron and if I needed to measure former Virginia football
players by heart, well nobody on this list would come close to Marques
Hagans ladies and gentlemen. He gave it his all every time he was out
there on the gridiron and you could see it. His spirit was unbreakable
and he just had an endless amount of heart and determination in not
allowing his team to lose.

Former Virginia signal-caller Marques Hagans was arguably one of the
most versatile athletes ever to suit up in Charlottesville. He could
run, throw, throw on the run with ease, return punts, and he was even a
receiver during his time at Charlottesville. He originally committed to
Indiana after he roomed with quarterback Antwaan Randle-El on his
official visit there, but academics forced him to go to Fork Union
Military Academy, where he played for coach John Shuman. The rest, as
they say, is history.

He once told his high school postgraduate
coach John Shuman at FUMA, "I play 120 percent, coach – 100 percent for
me and 20 percent for someone who’s being lazy in the huddle." In high
school, he led the Hampton Crabbers to 22 straight victories and even
led them to the state title as a junior. His best performance as a
Virginia Cavalier quarterback came against Florida State in 2005, in
which he completed 27 of his 36 passes for 306 yards in lifting his
team to an upset victory over the 4th ranked ‘Noles. Hagans’ ability to
improvise and elude pressure from a swarming Seminole defense helped to
give him extra time to throw the football and find open receivers.

In the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl, Marques Hagans made sure that
"Pacman" Jones and the Mountaineers knew of his dynamic playmaking
ability as he’s seen here returning a punt for a touchdown. The
Cavaliers took the Mountaineers to the woodshed that game to the tune
of 48-22 in what will be remembered as one of the most beautifully
orchestrated offensive gameplans in Virginia football history.

I
liked to call Hagans "The Great Improvisor" because no other
quarterback in Virginia football history was better at improvising when
the pocket collapsed. I’ll never forget the play in 2004 against
Syracuse at Scott Stadium. Hagans dropped back to pass, nothing was
there so he began rolling to his right, next thing I know he uses his
shoulder to rip through a tackler, gets a block downfield, and scampers
his way down the sideline for a 59-yard touchdown run. It was a thing
of beauty.

Hagans
abused Syracuse in his two contests against them, in 2004 he led the
Cavaliers with 81 rushing yards and tossed for 202 passing yards and
one touchdown. The Cavaliers throttled the Orange to the tune of 31-10.
In 2005, he gashed the Syracuse defense on several plays, once again
using his trademark ability to improvise and dance around defenders
with ease to the tune of a career high 110 rushing yards. Several of
those plays were crucial in lifting the Cavaliers to a heart-stopping
27-24 victory over the ‘Cuse at the Carrier Dome.

Quarterback Marques Hagans saved one of his best performances for last.
In the 2005 Music City Bowl, just a few days after his birthday,
"Biscuit" completed 25 of his 32 passes for 357 yards, en route to
being named MVP of the contest.

It was only fitting that Marques
Hagans progressed as a passer very much throughout his second-year as
the starting signal caller at UVA(2005) and capped his career with what
was one of the best passing performances of his career. He had often
heard the critics claim that he was too short at 5’9 to properly go
through his progressions and see over the offensive and defensive
linemen. Well, rest assured in the 2005 Music City Bowl against
Minnesota, "Biscuit" once again hushed all of his critics with a
masterful performance, completing 25 of his 32 passes for 357 yards and
2 touchdowns. The Hampton native earned MVP honors with his performance
and it was a more than fitting way for Hagans to finish his career at
the University of Virginia.

This is a beautiful painting by Jonathan D. Gordon one of my favorite
signal-callers. Marques Hagans aka "The Playmaker" will always have a
soft spot in my heart. He didn’t win any big-time awards besides MVP of
the 2005 Music City Bowl, but Marques Hagans was a competitor in its
purest form. He had more heart than I think I’ll ever see in any
football player. I’ll never forget watching him play in
Charlottesville. It was truly a privilege and an honor.

Marques Hagans, pictured above, with the St. Louis Rams.

In
2006, Hagans took his athleticsm to the NFL, where he was drafted in
the 5th round(144th pick overall) by the St. Louis Rams. He initially
started out as a punt returner, but he eventually would find his niche
as a receiver, something he excelled at while he was at Virginia, even
though he only played for one season. In 2007, he hauled in 8 passes
for 101 yards, despite only starting one contest. Here’s to hoping
"Biscuit" continues to improve at the receiver position. The man was
simply too dynamic of a playmaker to not be able to make it in the NFL,
in my opinion at least.

Okay, ladies and gents, that wraps up
numbers 10 through 6. I’ll finish it up with 5 through 1 sometime soon!
Check back next Saturday for the update.