Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993 TAG: 9312310114
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SHREVEPORT, LA. LENGTH: Long
The Hokies turned preseason predictions of football poverty into malarkey, going 8-3, rising to No. 22 in The Associated Press Top 25 and earning a date with 21st-ranked Indiana in today's 18th annual Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl (ESPN, 12:30 p.m.).
They are three-point favorites to win their first bowl game in seven years and get the Big East Conference's first 1993 victory over a Big Ten team.
Tech coach Frank Beamer has spent much of this week promising that the TV audience and an expected crowd of just more than 30,000 at 50,459-seat Independence Stadium will get a Hokies offensive show in the school's second appearance in the bowl.
Yet doubts remain. Are the Hokies Top 25 residents or renters who'll drop out and move on in short order? Is the Independence Bowl - a sometimes overlooked affair that has the second-lowest per-team payout among 19 postseason games - a stop on the way up for Tech, or is it the Hokies' peak?
Answers to those questions rely on Tech's response to a more immediate one: Can the undersized Hokies play with a typically large and bruising Big Ten team?
"They have a quarterback with a strong arm, two talented running backs and two extremely talented receivers, and an excellent front line," Tech senior linebacker DeWayne Knight said. "The last time we went against a team like that, we lost."
Tech's 14-13 loss to West Virginia in October could have been a victory if Ryan Williams' 44-yard field goal had been good, Knight was reminded.
"Yeah, but if you look at the latter part of the game, West Virginia was kicking our butts," Knight said. "After that game, people think we can't play against a physical team. We know we can."
A new attitude, a new defensive scheme, brutal two-a-days in August and the maturation of quarterback Maurice DeShazo backed up Tech's preseason boasts that it could flip-flop its 2-8-1 record of 1992.
The Hokies' 5 1/2-game turnaround was the best in Tech history and the second-best in the nation this year.
Indiana did a spin, too. The Hoosiers are making their sixth bowl appearance in eight years but are coming off a 5-6 season and the same pitiful preseason predictions as Tech.
Most observers had IU finishing eighth or ninth in the Big Ten. Instead, Indiana went 8-3, losing only to Wisconsin, Ohio State and Penn State.
"There was many a morning when I've woken up at 5:30 [to work out]," Indiana offensive lineman Todd Smith said. "I told [tight end] Ross Hales, `Someday, it's going to pay off.' I had a lot of good friends one last year's team. For those guys not to go to a bowl tore my heart out. We have paid the price, and it shows."
Indiana would like to display a victory over a ranked team; the Hoosiers are 0-3 in such encounters entering today. Tech went 1-3, beating 23rd-ranked Virginia and losing to Miami, WVU and Boston College.
Tech will try to improve a 1-5 all-time bowl mark with a team featuring 26 first- or second-year players among the top 44. Indiana, 3-4 all-time in bowls, has 14 seniors among its top 44.
Superficially, the game matches Tech's record-setting offense against Indiana's stout defense.
The Hokies were 11th nationally in scoring offense (36.4 points per game) and 10th in rushing offense (242.8 yards per game), the latter led by 1,000-yard rusher Dwayne Thomas and unanimous All-American center Jim Pyne, who enters his last game as a Hokie.
Indiana was seventh in scoring defense (13.8 ppg) and 10th in total defense (303.3 ypg). End Bernard Whittington, linebacker Charles Beauchamp and defensive back Mose Richardson were second-team all-conference choices.
The other sides, however, wish to be heard. Tech players and coaches are quick to praise Indiana's offense, which averaged 21.6 points and 320 total yards - ninth in the Big Ten. Tech folks say IU is a combination of WVU (physical running) and Boston College/Virginia (passing ability).
The Hoosiers have been stroking Tech's defense, which allowed a Big East-high 2,761 passing yards and gave up 388 total yards per game, fifth in the league.
"I don't think they have definite holes," said IU quarterback John Paci, who will share time today with Chris Dittoe. "Their big gun (cornerback Tyronne Drakeford) sat out a lot of games. I watched a lot of film, and he matches up one-on-one with every guy in the Big East, and there wasn't a team that attacked him."
Indiana, with second-team all-Big Ten receiver Thomas Lewis, might change that script today. The Hoosiers also have tailback Jermaine Chaney, who gained 682 yards in 10 games and has run a 100-meter dash in 10.61 seconds for Indiana's track team.
Tech defenders say they'll try to crimp Indiana's run before worrying about the arm of Paci/Dittoe. Whether it's Paci, a senior, or Dittoe, a redshirt freshman, doesn't matter, Beamer said.
"Their quarterbacks are very similar, from what I've seen," he said.
The Hoosier defenders, meanwhile, will try to contain DeShazo and disrupt a balanced Tech offense that doesn't figure to be bland in a land famous for its spicy foods.
The Hokies could trot out anything from the option to the shotgun to a no-huddle offense.
"I'm pretty confident right now we're going to go [all] out," receiver Antonio Freeman said.
by CNB