Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050100
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. LENGTH: Medium
Now it's a class vice president-elect, picked to finish second in the league, and has an agenda to boot. Some Hokies, including coach Frank Beamer, think a successful follow-up to the 1993 bowl victory is more than just a football thing.
There were more media members than usual buzzing around the Hokies' table Thursday during the Big East's media day at Giants Stadium, and it wasn't long before the questions came: Coach, is Tech bitter at being left out of the Big East's basketball expansion? Is Tech bitter that Notre Dame is in for basketball but Tech isn't?
``It tells me the importance of our football program and the future of Virginia Tech athletics,'' said Beamer, whose team is appearing in most preseason Top 25 polls. ``If we can be on top of the Big East and we sell a lot of season tickets and we go to some bowl games, I believe people would want us to be in their conference [for all sports].``
He mentioned Penn State, whose desirable football program paved the school's entry into the Big Ten. One of Tech's strategies for Big East all-sports inclusion is to wait. Once the recently signed television contracts expire around the year 2000, the theory goes, conferences may be hawking for new members again.
Beamer's musings on Thursday apparently didn't exclude the possibility of a conference other than the Big East ultimately calling on Tech for all sports.
``I think it's very important our football team is very successful,'' Beamer said. ``If it's not the Big East, maybe it's another conference.''
Beamer isn't the only one who sees the football program as a key to the door Tech's whole program wants badly to open. Senior linebacker Ken Brown, who later said there have been no team meetings and no drafted speeches on the subject, was asked how he viewed the expectations placed on Tech football in 1994.
``If we as a football team produce and do what's expected of us, I think we'll help out our basketball team,'' Brown said.
Media covering the league expect Tech, one of the Big East's two bowl winners last year, to finish second to Miami and ahead of Boston College in the Big East's second round-robin season.
That might spotlight Sept.17 and Oct.29, when Tech plays at BC and at Miami, respectively.
Preseason attention has swiveled for Tech. At the Big East's first media day in 1991, players Vaughn Hebron and Tony Kennedy complained about being shunned by TV interviewers. On Thursday, Tech quarterback Maurice DeShazo was about 10 minutes late for his meeting with print media; he apparently couldn't get away from the TV crews.
``It just feels good to come up here and not be overlooked,'' said receiver Antonio Freeman, who nevertheless claimed to have found skeptics. ``They see us, but they don't believe it. I don't think they expect us to carry it out. I don't think people realistically take us seriously.''
Still, the Hokies are picked in five preseason Top 25 polls, according to a list furnished by the Big East. Tech is as high as 20th (Street and Smith's) and as low as 25th (The Sporting News).
Tech, which last year at this event had to defend its 2-8-1 1992 season, talked big in a different way on Thursday.
``I guess you've got to seize the moment when you've got the eyes on you,'' Brown said. ``You've got to produce. If you don't, they may take their eyes off you and it may take a long time for them to look at you again.''
Beamer said he welcomes the preseason attention and remembers the last time Tech brought a talented team into September. It was 1991, and the overscheduled and injured Hokies went 5-6.
It must be different this time, Beamer said, and not only to keep Tech's football fans happy.
Beamer didn't spend much time Thursday reading from the Football Coaches' Handbook of Downplaying Expectations.
``It's just the reality of the thing,'' he said. ``We've got to support our football program to the fullest. It's the avenue we have right now at Virginia Tech.
``Football, right now, is the one that can help the whole thing.''
by CNB