Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409150055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
When Bryan Still was about 8 years old, the neighborhood kids would gather in between apartment complex buildings with their mutual friend, a football, and play ``Throw-it-up-and-run.''
Not much different from what he plays now - he runs (with perhaps the best speed among Virginia Tech receivers), and Hokies quarterback Maurice DeShazo throws it up. Still's career activity includes catches of 70 yards (Tech's longest of last season), 58, 50 and 41 yards - the latter Tech's go-ahead score last week against Southern Mississippi.
And while all-star candidate Antonio Freeman is considered Tech's best receiver, Still could be.
``Yeah, because of the speed,'' offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill said. ``He has one of the ingredients that could allow him to become a top-notch receiver, and that's the speed and burst.''
The Richmond resident moves, too, with fakes and cuts his boyhood friends must remember from their pickup games. He's returned one punt this year for 45 yards and has averaged 24.8 yards on four kickoff returns.
``That's what I've always been able to do,'' Still said. ``I'd be able to shake the bigger guys and not let 'em really put a good shot on me. The object of football for me was not to get hit.''
Understandable, considering Still's not-stout physique (6 foot, 163 pounds), except it makes Tech's coaches roll their eyes when they're looking for downfield blocks.
Still has been so astute at avoiding body-crashes that he can't remember getting seriously hurt during pickup games as a child that often involved older and bigger kids. The chaotic throw-it-up-and-run was exactly what its name said and included end zones (that tree, or the end of that building). Sometimes, Still and his friends would play tackle football.
``The thing I remember is I used to always get the wind knocked out of me. I'd be lying on the ground, gasping for air,'' Still said.
These days he sometimes leaves defensive backs breathless, but his wind is fine. He'll patiently discuss most any subject, from his one-time yearning to attend Maryland to temporarily losing the top of his right pinky finger in a weightlifting accident before the 1993 season.
His mom, Laura Still, persuaded him to look beyond the passing promise of Maryland's offense under then-first-year coach Mark Duffner and examine the academic opportunities at Tech.
``I said, `Yeah, well, you're right,''' said Still, who still thinks football. ``I probably would've caught probably 100 passes [at Maryland], but our record would've been, like, 3-30.''
And the pinky, well, anyone can see that looks just fine; the reattachment took, no worse for the wear ...
``I can tell,'' Still interjects, examining his finger. ``I can see the little dent in it. Everyone says, `Oh, that's so good.' But I still know what it is. It still feels funny.''
Still hurt the finger about three weeks before the season opener but caught three passes that day and played in every game. A part-time glove-wearer before, he wears gloves all the time now. That's his only concession to the disturbed nerve endings in the pinky.
More often, Still will agitate defenses - and not necessarily with receptions. The Hokies expected Freeman (nine touchdowns in '93) to be hounded, and Still said Tech's offense puts he and Freeman to use for each other.
``I run my routes to get him open, and he runs some of his routes to get me open,'' Still said. ``Some plays, you have the most important route and you're not even getting the ball.''
``Just like that route he caught the touchdown on [against Southern Mississippi],'' said Tranquill, noting Still's deep, straight-down-the-sideline excursion.
As long as Still is cruising around a football field, he's happy in Blacksburg. If he has time off, he's usually gone. He feels more at home in Richmond, although sometimes he heads to Martinsville, where his maternal grandparents live and where Still lived until he was 4.
When his family moved to Richmond is when those playground football games began. Still's skills came out then and carried him through pee-wee ball, a Huguenot High School career that included a second-team all-Group AAA season as a senior and to Blacksburg.
His 34-inch vertical jump also has carried him over various defensive backs for sparkling catches, although Still can remember one fly ball he didn't pull in.
``[At Boston College last year] I was running a post pattern, and I had [cornerback Joe Kamara, who just quit BC's team] by a couple steps. It was a jump-ball situation. I stuck my arms up, and he was sticking his hands in between my hands [and made the interception]. My boys back home never let me live that one down. I just know I don't want it to happen again.''
by CNB