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Position: WR
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 180
Hometown: Charlotte, NC
High School: Independence HS, Fork Union Military Academy
A tall, lanky WR with outstanding top end speed, Gamble was recruited by most of the ACC and some of the SEC schools. He committed to Virginia as a junior, while Al Groh was still head coach. After Groh's dismissal, Gamble reaffirmed his commitment to Mike London. Gamble was unable to secure admission into UVA, and therefore spent a post-grad year at FUMA.
His year at FUMA was spent polishing his skills and getting ready to head to Virginia. It was essentially a redshirt year, except it was spent on the field instead of on the sidelines. Gamble came to Virginia last year ready to go. He appeared in all 12 games, hauling in 3 passes for 35 yards. This included a 24 yard TD against Louisiana Tech.
That may not seem like much production, and I suppose it isn't. Keeping in mind the number of WRs ahead of him on the depth chart, it is impressive that he played at all. But Gamble gives a different look than most of the other WRs on the roster.
At 6'1" and with a 37 inch vertical, Gamble has the ability to go up and get a ball over a CB. Most of our WRs are on the smallish side, so they don't have that club in their bag. The other thing Gamble possesses is tremendous straight line speed. Gamble ran track in HS and posted a 100 meter time of 10.5 seconds. As the saying goes, you can't teach speed.
Seven WRs caught passes for the Hoos last year, and all 7 return this year. While that is fantastic news for the offense, it isn't great news for Gamble. Of course, the uncertainty at QB doesn't help either.
Gamble will be a leading candidate to take Tim Smith's starting spot when the latter graduates after this year. If we can ever find ourselves a damned QB, Gamble has the potential to be a star.