CHARLOTTESVILLE -- For NFL teams in the market for place-kickers, Virginia was the place to be this spring.

If the scouts didn't like what they saw from Connor Hughes, they could always take a look at Kurt Smith.

Chances are, they liked what they saw out of Hughes, the first-team All-ACC place-kicker this past season and the No. 1 scorer in UVa football history.

"Kurt did a great job on kickoffs his whole career here and, of course, I did the field goals," Hughes said. "A lot of the teams have come in here and wanted to see if we could do the opposite thing."

With more than a dozen scouts on hand for UVa's pro timing day, Hughes mostly kicked off. The only kickoff of his college career was against Temple this past fall in a 51-3 UVa victory. It landed 7 yards deep in the end zone.

Thirty-eight of Smith's 66 kickoffs resulted in touchbacks this past season, and he had a kickoff travel more than 80 yards in the air after a penalty that sent Virginia back to its 20-yard line at Miami.

ESPN rates Hughes as the No. 4 prospect among place-kickers going into the NFL Draft this weekend, but that doesn't mean he will be drafted.

"What I've heard for this year is that not a lot of teams are looking to draft kickers," said Hughes, who was 66-of-79 on field-goal attempts during his UVa career. "A lot of teams are looking for kickers, though. A lot of teams are looking for young guys who can come in and compete and maybe win a job."

One of the teams in the market was Dallas, which dispatched special-teams coach Bruce DeHaven to Charlottesville on a cold, rainy morning in late March. DeHaven was delayed at several stops along the way.

"Before I got on the plane this morning, I said, 'Well, I want to know when they're kicking because, if I get up there a little bit too late and they've already kicked, there's no use flying up,' " DeHaven said.

DeHaven was told that Hughes and Smith would not kick until 11:30 a.m., but, with bad weather on the way, plans were changed.

"You've got two good kickers here, I'm telling you what," DeHaven said. "They volunteered to go out and kick again for me."

What was Hughes going to do? Refuse to kick?

"Going back out is never a problem," he said. "If it was a nice day, maybe we'd show a little bit better. If it's a bad day, we just show that we can go out there and kick in anything. Either day, it will work out."

If DeHaven had gotten there earlier, he would have seen Hughes join the UVa position players at the bench-press rack, where teammates roared as he did 12 repetitions at 225 pounds.

"I just wanted to get out and have some fun, look like an athlete," Hughes said.

If the scouts had looked at Hughes' biography, they would have already known that.

At Lafayette High School in Williamsburg, Hughes was talked into trying out for the team and ended up as the starting quarterback for a state championship football team.

In the end, DeHaven's trip might have been in vain. Two days after Virginia's pro timing day, the Cowboys signed free agent place-kicker Mike Vanderjagt, left unprotected by Indianapolis despite going 23-of-25 on field goals last year.

Dallas could still draft Hughes, but that's why it would be preferable in many ways not to be drafted.

"Free agency works out great with me because then I get to look at the different programs and the different situations out there and pick the best option for me," he said. "It's not about the money."

If the scouts are convinced Hughes can kick off, that would be a bonus, saving a roster spot for teams that otherwise would carry a place-kicker and a kickoff specialist.

That isn't a concern in college, but most teams don't split those duties, much less with players in the same class.

"You don't get to see that very often," DeHaven said.