Shields took winding path to Virginia’s line

By JEFF WHITE
MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE
Published: April 11, 2008

CHARLOTTESVILLE—On his right arm is a colorful tattoo of his surname over an Irish flag. For a young man from the Boston area, where roots to Ireland run deep, that’s not out of the ordinary.

More unusual is the path that Jack Shields took to the heart of the University of Virginia’s offensive line.

On offense, he played wide receiver his freshman and sophomore seasons at Boston College High School. As a junior he played quarterback. As a senior, he moved to tight end, and that’s the position at which he began his college career in 2006.

In high school, Shields paid little-to-no attention to the guy snapping the football on each play.

“No chance,” he recalled with a smile. “I mean, I knew what the center did, but I never thought I’d be playing there some day.”

Not only does Shields play center these days, he could very well be starting there Aug. 30 when U.Va. opens against Southern California at Scott Stadium. He moved from tight end to center early in the 2006 season. In 2007, as a redshirt freshman, Shields backed up Jordy Lipsey, a two-year starter at center.

And now, with Lipsey gone, the 6-5, 289-pound Shields has been working with the first team this spring. U.Va. fans will get their first extended look at Shields in today’s (Saturday) spring game at Scott Stadium.

Not long after joining a program that regards tight end as a marquee position, Shields looked hard at the depth chart. He saw a better opportunity for early playing time at center, and his coaches at Virginia encouraged the position change.

“Like in high school when I switched around a lot, it didn’t matter to me,” Shields said. “I just wanted to play and do whatever helped the team. At tight end, I’m not the most athletic kid in the world, and our tight ends here are real athletic. It was just something where when I came here and I saw the fit at center, I started playing there, and I liked it. I like it a lot.”

Lipsey, who was generously listed as 6-3, 280, in last year’s U.Va. media guide, had trouble keeping on weight. In terms of sheer size, Shields is a major upgrade. But there’s more to the position than bulk, as Shields will attest.

“Jordy’s very technical. His technique is so good and his speed is very deceptive,” Shields said. “He’s very quick. A lot of people might not have noticed how quick he was. He was my roommate for all the games, so he and I grew very close.”

Shields appeared in only one game last season, Virginia’s 44-14 rout of Pittsburgh on Sept. 29. That romp was something of an anomaly in a season when the Cavaliers set an NCAA record by winning five games by two points or fewer. Had the season unfolded differently, U.Va. coach Al Groh said this week, Shields would have played more.

“It was definitely a result of game situations,” Groh said, “as it was at a number of other positions too. With those games going down to the final possession, we stayed pretty much with our core lineup during those games.”

Shields, who grew up in Boston, moved with his family to Duxbury, Mass., about 30 miles south of the city, in his early teens. His father, Jack Shields, played linebacker for Notre Dame from 1979 to ‘82. The younger Shields chose U.Va. over Vanderbilt and, with three seasons of eligibility left, appears poised to take on a prominent role.

“Nothing’s written in stone,” Shields said Sunday afternoon. “Right now I’m doing first team, and hopefully tomorrow I’ll be doing first team, too. You just go with it. I’m just trying to get better, and we’re just trying to get better every day.”

Contact Jeff White at (804) 649-6838 or .