Danny Aiken is the long snapper for Virginia.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- Some of the positions Danny Aiken played in his early days at Fork Union were quarterback, tight end, defensive end and punter.

Long snapping was not on his to-do list.

"I was punting for Fork Union and one of our long snappers wasn't doing so hot," Aiken said. "I told Coach [John] Shuman, 'Gee, Coach, I can do this.' He said, 'All right. We'll see what you've got.' "

By then, Aiken already had given thought to leaving Fork Union, a military school that afforded few of the comforts of Southwest Roanoke County and Cave Spring High School.

"Honestly, I knew I wasn't going to be able to come home," Aiken said. "I called my parents and they were like, 'You need to stay.' I said, 'I know.' I knew the whole time. I wanted to go home, but I knew it wasn't going to happen.

"Fork Union was different, but it was right for me."

Four months later, with long snapping as his ticket, Aiken was headed to Virginia on a full ride. Less than a year after he began snapping for Fork Union's postgraduate team, Aiken is playing in front of crowds of 60,000 or more as a true freshman.

When he was at Cave Spring, Aiken played quarterback, arguably the highest-profile position. But there's still plenty of stress in his new job.

"It's one of those positions when nobody knows your name till you screw up," Aiken's dad, Doug, said.

After a perfect afternoon in the Cavaliers' opening game at Wyoming, Aiken had three bad snaps in UVa's home opener against Duke and was replaced briefly by Crutcher Reiss.

Head coach Al Groh never committed to a starter before Aiken trotted onto the field at North Carolina for the Cavaliers' first extra-point try.

Aiken also snapped for five field goals and three punts in Virginia's 22-20 victory Saturday.

"His ability was unquestioned and he'd demonstrated that right from the start," Groh said. "We wanted it to work out this way because at those positions, whether it's a punt returner who's dropped one or two or it's a young receiver, we really want to build confidence.

"We wanted to go with what we'd seen for five weeks, rather than what had occurred on a couple of isolated circumstances. He really paid off."

Aiken won some admirers after the Duke game, when he was the first UVa player to arrive in the interview area.

"He was accountable," Shuman said. "He didn't miss the press conference. He didn't make any excuses."

Fortunately for Aiken, the Cavaliers had beaten Duke 24-13 and he was able to get his mind straight without having a loss hanging over his head.

"I was excited to get back out there and redeem myself," he said. "I came in with the mind-set of, 'Last week is over; it's a new week. Got to ready for North Carolina.' I got a lot of support from the team and the coaches."

It helped that UVa place-kicker Chris Gould and punter Ryan Weigand are seniors, but even players such as preseason All-American Chris Long were talking to him.

From an early age, Aiken heard from his father that long snapping was a skill that might lead to a college career.

The fundamentals came courtesy of former Cave Spring assistant Walt Derey, who was a long snapper at Northside before playing tight end for Virginia.

However, Aiken played a variety of positions at Cave Spring, including tight end and defensive end, and had the size to attract some recruiting interest.

He could have gone to Emory & Henry or UVa-Wise, "but he decided he wanted to shoot a little higher," Aiken's father said. "He knew those schools would still be there if nothing came out of Fork Union."

It took a while for recruiting interest to pick up. Virginia, for one, wasn't in the market for a long snapper until would-be returnee Tyrus Gardner got caught up in a credit-hours mix-up that left him ineligible.

"We didn't hear a whole lot about it," Doug Aiken said. "We weren't in the loop. Then [the Cavaliers] called and said they wanted him to come in for an official visit."

Shuman compares it to the recruiting of another ex-Cave Spring and Fork Union player, Robbie Powell, now in his third year as the starting center at Purdue. The Boilermakers never contacted Powell until one week before signing day in 2003.

"Last year, we had Danny and Frank Castonzo," Shuman said. "One week, Castonzo was going to Drake. The next, he had an offer from Boston College and now he's starting as a true freshman. It's a crazy world."

One reason the Cavaliers liked Aiken was his size (6-foot-5, 245 pounds). They had other walk-on long snappers in the program, but few with the bulk needed to hold off rushers.

Aiken knows he won't be a quarterback for the Cavaliers, but he eventually might like to try tight end.

"Those thoughts run through my head all the time," he said.

For the time being, he's more than content with the 10-15 plays he gets each game as a snapper. Few of his classmates have been tested the way he has in UVa's first three games.

Said Doug Aiken, "His first words to me after the UNC game were, 'Dad, if I hadn't gone to Fork Union, I wouldn't have been able to go out here today and do this.' "