Saturdays were made for college football. In an attempt to tie the college game to the Green Bay Packers, we present our weekly "Future Packers" series.

Will the players featured in this weekly column actually become Packers? It's a long shot. Consider it a bit of a draft preview and a look at the needs of the Packers heading into next offseason.

This week's future Packer: Virginia cornerback Ras-I Dowling

As some of you may know, last weekend I traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia ostensibly to go on vacation. However, I like to think I went to there to scout some future pro players.

I took in the Virginia Cavaliers/Duke Blue Devils game last Saturday. And knowing one of the most highly rated cornerbacks in all of college football was playing, I kept a close eye on Ras-I Dowling.

Just looking at him, Dowling is certainly a physical specimen. Standing 6-2 and weighing 200 pounds, he's every bit the size you want in a cornerback.

As with a cornerback that size though, you worry about his speed and whether it's good enough to keep up with NFL-caliber wide receivers. From what I saw, Dowling showed decent enough speed to make it in the NFL, although I'm sure his 40-yard dash time will be highly scrutinized when the Combine rolls around.

Even though Duke won the game 28-17 and threw for 348 yards in the process, Dowling was surprisingly not exposed. Sure, he gave up a couple receptions to men in his zone, but Dowling was able to keep receivers in front of him. It was his fellow defensive backs who gave up the long, back-breaking receptions.

Dowling even showed what he's 6-2 frame brings to the game when he batted away a jump ball-type of pass in the endzone at the last moment.

The Virginia Cavaliers haven't exactly been a good a team this year, but Dowling shows flashes of being dominant. In a 42-7 win over Indiana this year, he led the team in tackles with nine, and also had a sack, an interception and a forced fumble. The turnovers both led to Cavalier touchdowns.

Even in the loss to Duke, Dowling showed he wasn't one of the reasons for the loss. Based upon what I've seen and what else I know about him, I expect Dowling to go no later than the second round of this upcoming draft.

Today, Virginia faces Miami at noon. Given that Miami has one of the better passing games in the ACC and highly talented receivers, it's worth keeping an eye on how Dowling performs against the Hurricane passing attack.

The Green Bay Packers may or may not have a need a cornerback this upcoming year. Guys like Charles Woodson and Al Harris are getting up in age, but they show no signs of slowing down. And nickel back Tramon Williams is proving to be a capable replacement.

But the Packers have drafted two cornerbacks each of the past two years in Pat Lee and Brandon Underwood, and so far neither of them has shown what it takes to play in the NFL. They're still young, however, and things still have time to change.

Even so, the Packers don't figure to draft a cornerback in either of the first two rounds in 2010 given more pressing needs at other positions. But given Ted Thompson's penchant for acquiring draft choices, it wouldn't be far fetched to see the Packers draft a cornerback in the second round like they did in 2008.