Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 25, 1994                   TAG: 9401250093
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

NFL AIDE GOES BACK TO SCHOOL BROWNS' TRANQUILL JOINS HOKIES' FOOTBALL STAFF

Tranquill, a 29-year veteran of college coaching, spent the past three years as the Cleveland Browns' quarterbacks coach. Beginning Feb. 1, he will return to college as Virginia Tech's offensive coordinator.

His friendship with Tech defensive coordinator Phil Elmassian helped lure the former University of Virginia assistant and Navy head coach to Blacksburg. But Tranquill's willingness to leave the NFL may have sprouted when Browns head coach Bill Belichick cut Cleveland quarterback Bernie Kosar in early November.

"Sometimes, decisions are made based on a lot of things. Some of them are a little tough sometimes," Tranquill said Monday when asked about the Kosar situation. "You kind of get close to a player, and the first thing you know, he's gone.

"There are times when, in college, things happen that are maybe beyond your control sometimes. At this level, it happens quite frequently."

Tranquill, who said he likes to fish and borrow Elmassian's tool kit, will step back into the slightly more patient world of college football.

"You get a chance to have maybe a little more to do with how [players improve] technique-wise and as a person," he said Monday via a teleconference. "I miss those kinds of things."

Tech athletic director Dave Braine said Tranquill, 53, will receive the standard one-year contract for Hokies assistants, not a two-year deal such as Elmassian's. Braine said Tranquill's salary hasn't been determined, but it is expected he will earn about $68,000, which is Elmassian's annual paycheck.

Tranquill replaces Rickey Bustle, who spent seven years at Tech and led the Hokies' record-setting 1993 offense before taking the offensive coordinator's job at South Carolina.

Tech coach Frank Beamer said he studied UVa's Tranquill-built offense from 1987-90. He said Tranquill's tendencies mesh with Tech's, and that Tranquill plans to learn Tech's play-calling vocabulary - not impose his own on the returning Hokies.

"The one thing I kept hearing with Gary: `He's the best I've ever seen,' " Beamer said of his chats with other coaches who knew Tranquill. "Handling a quarterback on the field, working an offense, calling the plays."

Tranquill inherits the highest-scoring team in Hokies history (36.4 points per game) that returns top rusher Dwayne Thomas, top receiver Antonio Freeman and quarterback Maurice DeShazo, who set a school record with 22 touchdown passes last year.

Bustle recruited DeShazo and coached him for three years before becoming coordinator. DeShazo often said having Bustle as coordinator helped him play better.

"Maurice and Rickey Bustle, they were very close. That was a long relationship, and a good relationship," Beamer said. "I think we've found a guy that's going to be good for Maurice."

Tranquill, a native of Avella, Pa., has had eight coaching stints at seven colleges, including Navy twice (an assistant from 1973-76 and head coach from 1982-86), Ohio State (assistant under Woody Hayes from 1977-78) and West Virginia (assistant under Don Nehlen from 1979-81).

Money and security, he said, were not major issues in his decision to join the Hokies.

"More importantly, I'm going to be happy where I'm going. I know that," he said.