Countdown to UVA Football: #91 Dylan Sims|UV Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

Position: PK
Height: 6’0″
Weight: 190
Year: Redshirt Senior
Hometown: Lynchburg, VA (Jefferson Forest)

After previewing Lester Coleman and Andrew King, two members of UVA’s #TeamKick who are likely to serve primarily as backups in 2016, our focus turns to one of the legs that ought to be front and center in Bronco Mendenhall’s first year.

Dylan Sims spent 2015 as the primary kickoff specialist, reprising the same role he played in all of 2014 and the final two-thirds of 2013. His touchback rate has increased each year he’s been with the Hoos, from 37 percent in 2013, to 45 percent in 2014, to an even 50 percent last season. His booming leg earned him special teams player of the week honors after UVA’s heartbreaking loss to Notre Dame.

The big change for Sims will be taking on field goal and extra-point duties. Departed starter Ian Frye was incredibly reliable for the Hoos last year, going 11-of-12 on kicks inside 40 yards and converting 34 of his 35 PAT attempts. Sims is not the guaranteed heir to Frye but is the presumed starter there. Sims has the leg to make longer kicks than Frye (who was 6-of-10 from 40-49 yards), but will need to match the short and mid-range consistency. Whether he can do that is one of the season’s big question marks, as the first field goal Sims attempts in 2015 will be the first of his collegiate career.

Coming out of high school, Sims was an all-state kicker for Jefferson Forest and was a national finalist at the Nike Kicking Championships.