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

DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994                   TAG: 9408050081
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.                                LENGTH: Short

HOKIES PICKED HIGH IN BIG EAST POLL

Virginia Tech continued a preseason of high expectations Thursday when it was picked to finish second in the eight-team Big East Football Conference.

The Hokies, with 14 starters returning from the 9-3 team that finished fourth in the Big East last season, received four of the 42 first-place votes cast by media covering the league.

Miami was picked to win the Big East, getting 35 first-place votes and 321 points. Tech finished with 239 points. Boston College, under new coach Dan Henning, had one first-place vote and 230 points to finish third.

West Virginia, the defending league champion after an unbeaten regular season, followed with 191 points. Syracuse, with one first-place vote, had 169 points; Rutgers, 152; Pittsburgh, 98; and Temple, 43.

``I'm happy to be picked up top, [but] I think it's more talking about what we did last year,'' said Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose eighth Hokies team is in five preseason Top 25s, behind Miami in all of them and behind Boston College in one.

The Hokies, two years removed from a 2-8-1 season, won the Poulan/Weed Eater Independence Bowl last year and are hoping to move up the bowl ladder this year. Finishing second in the Big East could bring a New Year's Day bowl berth.

by CNB