So there I was in my half-furnished living room two nights ago, watching "Monday Night Football" and putting off all kinds of very necessary homework, when Terrence Wilkins makes a 27-yard touchdown catch for the Indianapolis Colts.
At about that point, it occurred to me that any self-pitying Cavalier fan worth his striped tie - you know, the ones for whom Virginia football is a potent, drunken mixture of khaki and halftime tailgating - had surely just raised his hands skyward and pined for the days when Wilkins wore No. 7 for the orange and blue.
I'm not quite as fatalistic as the average Virginia fan when it comes to the latest edition of Welsh's Merry Men, but I sympathize with his plight. Take heart, Wahoo brother. Just watch the former Cavaliers on Sundays instead of the current ones on Saturdays and dream of days gone by.
Wilkins might be foremost on your ex-Cav wish list right now, after his performance in Indy's 43-14 win over Jacksonville Monday night. Last season, the 5-foot-8 wideout amassed 2,089 total yards, more than any undrafted rookie in league history. Only five other rookies have managed even 2,000 yards.
As a converted tailback who wasn't exactly renowned for his knowledge of the playbook, Wilkins got by mostly on guts and talent at Virginia. But he was one of the best surprises in the NFL last season and Monday night against the Jaguars, Wilkins established a pair of career highs with nine receptions for 148 yards and the aforementioned touchdown. He even got interviewed live on ESPN.
Wilkins' former receiving partner also had a big week in the professional ranks. Germane Crowell, now in his third season with the Detroit Lions, hauled in a splendid 36-yard touchdown catch to help edge the Chicago Bears, 21-14.
As a 6-3 wide receiver in the post-Herman Moore era at Virginia, Crowell - like Billy McMullen this year - was often compared to Moore, the most storied receiver in Cavalier history. Crowell never played with Moore in Charlottesville, but they team in Motown with Johnnie Morton to give the Lions one of the NFL's best wideout trios, even if the Detroit offense had been downright anemic through the first two games this season.
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Tiki and Ronde Barber, the twins formerly known as "The Barbers of C'ville," have also made their respective marks on the young NFL season. Tiki is averaging 6.9 yards per carry as one half of the New York Giants' "Thunder and Lightning" running back tandem. No other player with at least 30 carries has a higher yards-per-carry average. Yet New York sportswriters evidently could not come up with a decent nickname for the combination of he and Ron Dayne. Tiki was nicknamed for a Rossini opera in college, but now all he gets is some sorry meteorological clich
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