ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 16, 1996 TAG: 9611180111
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The most successful team in the short history of the Big East Football Conference wants to make a statement for more than itself today at the Orange Bowl.
And it's not Miami.
Virginia Tech visits the Hurricanes as the Big East team with the most victories since the conference began playing round-robin in 1993. The Hokies also have the league's longest win streak in those years and are the only Big East champion to win a New Year's Day bowl.
None of that is likely to help 21st-ranked Tech (7-1) today in the Orange Bowl, where no Big East team or school that would become a member of the league has won since Boston College in 1984.
And that took a Hail Mary.
Today's 3:47 p.m. kickoff is about bowl status and has championship implications. It's going to 73 percent of the nation's TV homes via CBS, the network on which Tech embarrassed itself seven weeks ago in a debacle at Syracuse.
It's also about reputation, which 18th-ranked Miami (6-2) has from years of success, before it fell to third place in the Sunshine State, behind Florida and Florida State.
The Hokies hadn't beaten Miami in a dozen tries dating to 1953 when Tech won last season in Blacksburg. That is one of only two Big East defeats in four years suffered by the Hurricanes.
In Miami's last two dates at the junkyard-dog of a stadium, the Hurricanes were blown away by Florida State and East Carolina. Miami hasn't lost three consecutive games in the Orange Bowl since 1977 (Tulane, Florida, Notre Dame). Can the Hokies make Miami match that?
"You've got to know you can do something to have a fair shot,'' Tech coach Frank Beamer said, recalling last season. "At least we know we can do it.''
In their last two trips to South Florida, the Hokies have scored two and three points, both after blocked kicks. However, Tech must do more than score a touchdown to leave Syracuse as the only unbeaten team in the Big East.
The Hokies must keep the football, and, to do that, they must run with it. Beamer need look no deeper in the record book than last season's 13-7 Miami loss at Blacksburg to make his point.
Tech won because it became the first team since Notre Dame, in 1980, to rush for 300 yards against the 'Canes. The Hokies kept the ball for almost 33 minutes.
They learned how Miami felt. In the Hokies' two offenseless Big East visits to the Orange Bowl, the home team has had the ball for 34:56 and 32:36. Those numbers are magnified because the games are played in heat to which visitors from the Big East's colder climes aren't accustomed.
Also consider that FSU and ECU - in Warrick Dunn and Scott Harley - are the only teams with 100-yard rushers against Miami this year. They're the only teams to beat the Hurricanes, who in their last 19 games, are 3-5 when an opposing back has reached triple figures.
There is a notion that the Carrier Dome is the toughest place to play in the Big East, because of the noise and the springy artificial turf below a seemingly low Teflon ceiling.
While the Orange Bowl is a different atmosphere, the temperature and humidity play a role, along with Miami's mystique.
Miami also still has the Big East's best talent. Syracuse may win the title and quarterback Donovan McNabb makes the Orangemen a tough assignment, but player for player, the 'Canes are still the beasts of the Big East.
The Hokies can win, but they must play with emotion and not get caught up in it. If Tech plays as it did in beating ECU last weekend, it has a chance.
"When you've reached a certain point,'' Beamer said, "overall you're judged by how you play in big games. Like they say, if you take care of little things, big things will come.''
Miami's program isn't quite what it was, but reputations and dynasties don't just die. They slowly ebb. The question is whether Miami has slipped enough for someone else from the Big East to win in the shadow of palm trees.
"They seem more vulnerable every year,'' said Tech safety Torrian Gray, a Floridian. "They're not as invincible as they were.''
Now, someone else from the Big East has to prove it.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB