Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, September 22, 1994 TAG: 9409240025
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
To Virginia Tech, West Virginia has served its purpose. The Mountaineers' 1993 season showed the Hokies exactly what happens when a Big East Football Conference member without Miami's reputation wins all its regular-season games - a top five ranking, a national-title presence and a spot in one of the major New Year's Day bowls.
No.14 Tech, 3-0 for the first time since 1981, wants a ladleful of the same soup. Guarding the vat this week is 1-3 WVU, which visits Blacksburg tonight for an 8:01 kickoff. Both teams have had a short week of practice to prepare for the 40th meeting in a series in which WVU has won the past two games.
The teams' rivalry may be boisterous and the game may be on national TV before a close-to-sellout crowd at Lane Stadium, but the pregame talk has been so bland you'd think the volume knob is broken. Nobody, for example, will bite hard on the theory the '94 Hokies could replicate what the '93 Mountaineers pulled off - at least in the same way.
``West Virginia wasn't really expected to do a lot,'' said Tech quarterback Maurice DeShazo. ``We are, for some reason, expected to do a lot.''
So, he says, there aren't really parallels between '94 Tech and '93 WVU. Over in Morgantown, W.Va., coach Don Nehlen says Tech has ``a chance'' in part because of the Hokies' ``favorable'' schedule - until he asks and finds out that Tech plays Miami and Syracuse on the road.
And coach Frank Beamer, who thinks his Hokies have done a fine job handling their steady ascent in the national polls (as well as winning three games with an iffy offense), says any Tech thought straying from the topic at hand - WVU, tonight - is ``the most dangerous thing that could happen to us right now.''
As for whether Tech is walking the same path taken by WVU en route to the '93 Big East championship and a Sugar Bowl berth ...
``I hadn't really thought about that,'' Beamer said.
Well ... WVU was unranked in preseason last year, won its fourth game 14-13 over Tech in Morgantown, but remained a somewhat overlooked unbeaten team until it topped Syracuse to go 7-0 and move to No.11 in the AP poll. When West Virginia upset Miami 17-14 on Nov.20 to go 9-0, the Mountaineers rose to No.5; they peaked at No.3 a week later.
Tech began at No.22 in the preseason and his risen eight spots with three victories. The Hokies play at Miami on Oct.29 - the ninth game of the season.
That might be rushing things. Tonight, the Hokies are 14-point favorites to win their fourth game this year and seventh in a row overall, which would tie the school's longest winning streak since the 1967 crew was 7-0. West Virginia, meanwhile, hasn't been 1-3 under Nehlen since 1987 and never has been 1-4.
The Mountaineers lost at home to Maryland last week, giving up 187 yards rushing to a team that had been averaging 34. Beamer, try as he might to avoid analyzing WVU's troubles, gently hinted that a relative lack of experience at linebacker might be one reason the Mountaineers are allowing 4.3 yards per rush.
Tech is averaging 2.9 yards per carry (compared to 4.6 last year), one of many offensive concerns. DeShazo has completed 57 percent of his passes, but hasn't put the ball in the end zone as frequently as he did last year.
``We get the sense we can just do everything we normally do in our game plan,'' he said when asked if the running game would be stressed tonight. ``We'll have both of 'em [pass and run]. We'll be all right.''
WVU quarterback Eric Boykin (toe injury) is OK, but the same can't be said yet for the Mountaineers. Boykin and Chad Johnston have had chances behind center, but WVU is sixth in the Big East in rushing offense (127.5 yards per game) and passing offense (190.3), seventh in total offense (318) and last in scoring (10.3). To boot, Mountaineer quarterbacks have been sacked 17 times; WVU gave up 21 sacks all last year.
It's not surprising, then, that Nehlen moaned through a Monday teleconference.
``Had we executed in the red zone [against Maryland] we probably would've won,'' Nehlen said. ``We're a completely young, new football team. Inexperience now and then gives you problems.''
And what about Tech's offensive kinks?
``I've got enough problems trying to figure out what our problems are, let alone what Virginia Tech's problems are,'' Nehlen said.
There's one thing about tonight's game that even a hunkered-down head football coach will talk about: exposure. Beamer reminded his team several times before last year's Dec.31 Independence Bowl that the game was the only one being played in its time slot - meaning a college football fan on a bowl diet had just one thing, Tech vs. Indiana, in the refrigerator.
Same deal tonight.
``All the other college players in the country, most of 'em will be watching Virginia Tech and West Virginia,'' Beamer said, perhaps unintentionally forgetting to mention viewers who might also be very good high school football players or pundits on the AP's polling scrolls. ``You've got the audience, and it's a great opportunity. Everyone wins in this situation - if we take advantage of it.''
by CNB