Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993 TAG: 9310010262
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Even with that crackle,it is a football rivalry that has merely simmered in recent years. It's really been a border war with slingshots,a remnant and relic of the two schools' years in the Southern Conference,an era that ended in 1964.
WVU always has spent most of its emotions on Pitt and Penn State. Compared to Tech's hostility for Virginia,the Hokies' dates with the Mountaineers have produced heat mostly in traffic jams and filled stadiums. The Hokies,long frustrated by their exclusion from the ACC,have gotten more lathered about dates with UVa's league brethren.
Perhaps that's about to change. At noon Saturday at Mountaineer Field,Tech and West Virginia will play the most meaningful game in a 39-game series that began in 1912.
Tech-WVU has been a big gate. Now,thanks to their membership in the Big East Football Conference,it's a big game,too. How big is it?For the Hokies,it might be the biggest game in their football history.
The 25th-ranked Mountaineers become the 23rd ranked opponent in Frank Beamer's 6 1/2 seasons as the head coach at his alma mater. Tech has played higher-rated and tougher foes,to be sure,and it's still early in a season that has the Hokies 3-1 and West Virginia 3-0.
However,with a victory,Tech is likely to move into the national rankings. When is the last time that happened during the season?How about Beamer's junior season as a Tech defensive back?
In 1967,Tech started 7-0 and was 19th in the United Press International poll before losing to Miami. The Hokies haven't appeared in the Associated Press poll during the season since 1954,when an 8-0-1 team spent nine straight weeks ranked,rising as high as 14th. Tech's last poll position was 20th in the final AP poll in 1986,after Chris Kinzer gave Bill Dooley's coaching days at Tech a last-second kick with a Peach Bowl victory.
This isn't just the Big East TV game,it's also could be for a New Year's Day bowl berth. The Big East has three locked-in postseason slots and is likely to get a fourth with a 7-4 team.
The Tech-WVU winner would appear to be in great shape for the third Big East berth -in the Blockbuster Bowl-turned-Sunshine Classic -particularly if Boston College loses at Syracuse in the same noon time slot. At the least,the Morgantown survivor is pointed toward a first-division finish.
"People say Miami and Syracuse are better than the rest of us," Beamer said. "We get three in New Year's Day bowls. So,the implications are there to make this a very big game,and I think it is big. It's the kind of game that could have a really good effect on our program."
After the visit to WVU,the Hokies have an open date,followed by three consecutive home games -Temple,Rutgers and East Carolina -in which they will be favored. That's why Tech's senior center,Lombardi Award semifinalist Jim Pyne,said Thursday he hasn't played in a game "that meant this much since the state championship game my senior year in high school" at Milford,Mass.
"They say the more you win the bigger they get,and that's true," Beamer said. "Still,I don't think this is a game where if we win,we're there,or if we lose,it's all over. I think they're in the same situation. West Virginia just has always presented a really tough football game. When I was in school,we played,but it's different now. There's something added. We're in the same league."
Tech is there because the Hokies were ushered into the Big East by West Virginia. WVU's pushing of Tech to longtime eastern neighbors was significant in the Hokies' acceptance.
Tech also has won two in a row in Morgantown -where it had lost eight in a row from 1973-87 -and there are more than a few people who like the Hokies' chances again. WVU has dropped to a 1-point favorite -from a betting spread of 5 1/2 -in five days.
They really are close now.
by CNB