Cavalier Corner is the publication just for UVa sports fans!
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Running Back Kevin Parks Desires To Be Great Consider 2013 Kevin Parks' time to shine. Not that the 5-8, 205-pound running back from Salisbury, N.C., hasn't shone brightly at different times during his playing career. In high school, he earned all kinds of AllAmerica awards, including being named the Old Spice Red Zone National Player of the Year after he rushed for 10,895 yards in four years at West Rowan High, the most in North Carolina history. And now entering his third-year season at Virginia, Parks, a redshirt third-year, has had some big games as a Cavalier, too — 114 yards in his college debut versus William & Mary and 115 against North Carolina State last year to name a couple. But in three years at UVa he's always been part of a crowded backfield, one led by Perry Jones, an older tailback with similar size and skills. Now Jones has graduated — and Clifton Richardson has transferred. Parks returns as the team's leading rusher and most experienced tailback. Sure, there are still other talented ball carriers in the Wahoos' stable including redshirt junior Khalek Shepherd and incoming first-year Taquan Mizzell, but the speedy back with a nose for the end zone won't lack for carries at all. "He's a guy who can give you 50 plays a game," Virginia assistant Tom O'Brien told reporters this summer. "I don't think it's going to bother him to carry the ball 25 times." As part of their conditioning regimen and Parks led the Cavaliers in rushing last year, amassing 734 their mantra of toughness, Parks and the yards and five scores on 160 carries. photo by andrew shurtleff Cavaliers utilize a sledgehammer in their