University of Virginia Library

Player Of The Week

Patton Defends Wahoo Flank

By Bob Cullen

For Virginia fans accustomed
to the sight of enemy backs
scampering merrily around the Wahoo
flanks, one of the pleasant
surprises of this season has been
the outstanding play of second-year
defensive end, Tom Patton.
In recognition of his hard-nosed
play against Wake Forest last
Saturday, which included a clutch
interception, Tom Patton has been
selected as this week's Player
of the Week.

According to Defensive Coach
Don Lawrence, a defensive end
must have the ability to be aggressive,
the aggressiveness to perform
his job and the savvy to
avoid hook blocks and trap plays.
His primary function is not to
make the actual tackle—that's the
task of the linebackers.

What Patton and Sinesky must
do, if the defense is to be successful,
is turn the play to the inside
and strip the runner's interference.
It's easier said than done. In order
to perfect their technique, Coach
Lawrence has been using a
particularly vicious three-on-one
drill in which he gets a couple
of his biggest tackles to simulate
the blocking on an end sweep,
bearing down time and again on
the lone defensive end, whose job
has already been explained.

Tom Patton has survived many
of these drills and the reason is
obvious: he comes to play. The
205 lb. native of New Castle,
Pennsylvania has been described by
his coaches as "a boy that loves
to play football, and especially to
hit." In the mist of Bowman Gray
Stadium he did a lot of that.

Wake's junior college transfer
Freddie Summers is the best exponent
of the rollout option that
the Cavaliers have met to date,
and his play has been characterized
by steady improvement as he
became more accustomed to the
surroundings at Wake.

But Patton and his mates rose
to the occasion with their best
second half of the year, holding
Summers to 25 yards. Patton personally
foiled the Deacons in their
last two attempts to score, intercepting
one pass and deflecting another
to insure the win.