Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 12, 1994 TAG: 9409140004
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
If you're a Virginia Tech football fan and lists are your thing, this is your time.
The Hokies moved up in two Top 25 polls and showed up among the nation's leaders in total defense Sunday following their 24-14 victory at Southern Mississippi.
Tech, despite a flawed performance against Southern Miss that included six turnovers, rose from No.21 to No.18 in The Associated Press poll, moving ahead of losers Southern California (No.14 to No.20) and Oklahoma (No.15 to No.21). The Hokies crept to No.16 in the USA Today/CNN coaches poll released Sunday.
The Hokies' defense is giving up an average of 160.5 yards per game, the second-best number in the nation after the season's second week. Illinois is first (101.5 yards per game); Tech's Big East Football Conference rival Miami is fourth (167.5).
Tech finished the 1989 season ranked fourth nationally in total defense under coordinator Mike Clark, now a VMI assistant. The Hokies' defense hasn't finished ranked higher than No.45 (in 1990) since then.
For perspective this season, Tech has played a weak Arkansas State offense (Nevada shut out the Indians on Saturday) and a Southern Miss unit that put up big first-week numbers against lowly Tulane.
The Hokies have given up three touchdowns this year - on drives of 11, 3 and 2 yards. Against the Golden Eagles, the defense bailed out a flighty offense to push Tech's record to 2-0 and its winning streak to five games entering Saturday's Big East game at Boston College. Southern Miss' 144-yard total was its lowest since it gained 54 in a 17-10 loss to Alabama in 1992.
``I'm not going to make it any more sensational than it is,'' Tech defensive coordinator Phil Elmassian said Saturday night, ``but I've never seen football players that in the fourth quarter were just as good as they were in the first.''
Elmassian said he showed his players film of the Golden Eagles' defense, which he said is ``just as good as ours.''
``I think that was the best thing we did,'' he said. ``[Our players] were really impressed.''
PENALTY REVISITED: A roughing-the-passer penalty that nullified a Southern Miss end-zone interception in the first quarter apparently was called on defensive end Steve Latson, not end Michael Tobias as reported in Sunday's editions.
Latson told the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American, ``They called me for hitting him [quarterback Maurice DeShazo] upside the head, and I'll be the first to admit I made a mistake. I just kind of got carried away with emotion.''
RARITY: Tech's coaches praised the Hokies for overcoming six turnovers to beat Southern Miss. The last time that happened was in 1975, when Tech beat Houston 34-28 at the Astrodome despite losing six fumbles.
ETC: Tommy Edwards' touchdown in the second quarter gives the former Radford High School star 13 in 14 games at Tech. The play, officially credited as a 2-yard run, actually was a 3-yard carry. ... The Hokies had gone five games without losing a fumble before Saturday. ... In two games, Tech has been penalized 21 times for 164 yards.
by CNB