Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 19, 1993                   TAG: 9304190041
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

AN EARLY TASTE OF TECH'S NEW FOOTBALL FARE

Don't play them.

The Hokies trimmed five minutes off each quarter in Saturday night's intrasquad spring fling. If they could have shortened the game like that last autumn, they'd have been 8-3 instead of 2-8-1.

What did the Hokies really learn from the game, other than the fact it can be just as cold in April at Lane Stadium as it is in November?

Check the scoreboard. It was 9-7 as the Hokies beat themselves, but only three times last season did Tech manage to allow fewer than 16 points in a game. Coach Frank Beamer, after a winter of discontent, seems encouraged by the revamped defense under the emotional guidance of new coordinator Phil Elmassian.

Certainly, Tech still has much to learn in the 4-3 scheme after deep-sixing the wide-tackle set. The Hokies may no longer be playing Beamer's defense, but, remember, they are playing for his job.

In 15 days of spring practice, and only 10 in pads, it's difficult to prove much, and even tougher to teach and learn a new system with a staff that's half strangers.

In assessing the Hokies' defensive play Saturday night, Beamer, in one instance, chose the word "violent." That would not describe the unit that allowed 405 yards and 26 points per game last season.

Elmassian and his aides still are giving a veteran unit food for thought, and there may be more changes coming - like free safety P.J. Preston possibly switching back to outside linebacker - but whatever Elmassian is telling the Hokies, it seems to be working.

It's probably something simple, like "Tackle or else."

Of course, the flip side to those scoreboard single digits means Tech's offense was like the wind chill. The Hokies threw the football like it was a hand grenade.

Beamer admitted disappointment in the passing game, but only on this night. He said the play of improved quarterback Maurice DeShazo and the receivers had been one of the highlights of spring practice.

The Hokies must pass the ball with more consistency than a year ago because their running game is one of promise. Tech's tailback depth is remindful of Bill Dooley's days.

Remember the name "Ranall White" - rhymes with "ran all night." And he was third-string at best entering the game, in which both Hokies teams moved the ball with running backs coach Bill Hite's favorite attack:

"Hi diddle, diddle, run it up the middle."

There was something else very noticeably different about these Hokies in their spring game. Absent was the strutting and showboating that was too prevalent last season. Either they have learned a lesson, or they're being taught one.

"It's been kind of a neat spring," Beamer said. "It has been very businesslike. . . . This game says something, too. You want to see how kids react in a game, when the lights are on, where you're keeping score."

There wasn't as much at stake as there was at steak on a frigid night 4 1/2 months before the opening kickoff of the first full Big East season.

The winners ate steak. The losers got hot dogs. With some new entrees on their menu, the Hokies just don't want to be weenies again this season.