CHARLOTTESVILLE—The talk of training camp at U.Va. has been the play of wide receiver Dontrelle Inman.  Don’t be shocked if the 6-3, 185-pound true freshman from Batesburg, S.C., breaks into the starting lineup this season.

“He’s got a chance,” wide receivers coach Wayne Lineburg said Sunday. “The thing he has is, he’s got really, really good instincts.  He’s a smart football player.  This is early on now, early on in practice, but he’s a tough kid.  As far as where he is mentally now, he’s way ahead of where a lot of freshmen are mentally. He just knows what’s going on.”

That Virginia’s corps of receivers keeps taking blows has increased the likelihood that Inman will play a leading role this season.  First, Kevin Ogletree, the Cavaliers’ leading receiver in 2006, suffered a major knee injury during spring practice.  He’s coming off surgery and isn’t expected back this season.  Kris Burd, a true freshman from Matoaca High, had season-ending back surgery last week.  Most recently, Cary Koch hurt his knee in practice.  The injury isn’t consider major, but it will sideline the transfer from Tulane for a while.

Inman’s classmates include another wideout who may play this season: Jared Green, son of former Redskins great Darrell Green.  The younger Green didn’t put up big receiving numbers at Oakton High School, and he was considered something of a project when he signed with U.Va. in February.  But he’s impressed the coaching staff thus far.

At 6-2, Green towers over his famous father.  But he inherited one of Darrell Green’s trademarks: speed.

“Fast,” Virginia coach Al Groh said when asked how Jared Green looked in practice.  “Real fast.”

Inman, who wears the No. 81 jersey that previously belonged to Deyon Williams, doesn’t have that kind of speed, but he runs precise routes, has excellent hands and is adept at leaping to make catches.

A knee injury limited Inman to five-and-a-half games as a high school senior, one reason perhaps that he wasn’t considered a big-time catch when he committed to U.Va. in December.  But even before he learned about Ogletree’s setback, Inman expected to play as a true freshman.

Green wasn’t so sure. 

When he heard that Ogletree had torn an ACL, Green recalled, “What I said to myself was, ‘Let’s get ready for anything that will happen.’  My goal coming in here was to be prepared for whatever comes at me.  Kevin Ogletree to me is like a big brother.  I think he’s the greatest.  I watch his film, and I try to emulate a lot of things that he does …  But as a wide receiver coming in, as a younger guy, of course this opens up the door, and I’m saying to myself, ‘Hey, I got to help the team.’  Whatever me and all the other wideouts can do to help and fill that spot, let’s do it.”