After missing all of 2020, Dontayvion Wicks making an impact for Cavaliers

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - Against North Carolina this past weekend, the Virginia football team scored 39 points, and put up 577-yards of Total Offense.

They didn’t get the win, but they did get another standout performance from wide receiver Dontayvion Wicks.

The sophomore had seven catches for 183-yards, both career high’s, and he is second in the ACC with 115-yards receiving per game this year.

Dontayvion Wicks never planned on being a star on the gridiron.

“I didn’t get an ACC scholarship until a month before Signing Day,” says Wicks, “So I didn’t really imagine this. I really thought I was going to go play basketball in college.”

Wicks joined the varsity football team at Plaquemine High School in Louisiana as a sophomore, and turned himself into a three-star prospect.

Now he’s turning heads in the ACC.

The Cavaliers are 4th in the nation in Total Offense this season, at 559.33 Yards Per Game.

Wicks says, “I didn’t think exactly what the numbers would be, but I imagined it to be this big, or even bigger. The more games we play, the bigger it gets.”

Wicks didn’t get to play in any games last season, after suffering a foot injury in fall practice.

He essentially traded places with Lavel Davis Jr. this year, who is out with an ACL tear, after having a breakout campaign in 2020.

Head coach Bronco Mendenhall says, “We saw signs of it all coming, before (Wicks) got hurt. That’s why I felt, internally, the same way I felt when Lavell (Davis Jr.) got hurt. I knew he was going to have a similar season, and have that same kind of production. Everybody else didn’t know, but we knew.”

Wicks adds, “Now being that I’m healthy, and able to play, it’s just a chip, and something I have to prove to everybody, that they missed out on the 2020 season.”

Virginia is scheduled to be back in action at home against Wake Forest on Friday Night.

Kickoff is set for seven o’clock at Scott Stadium

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