Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 23, 1994 TAG: 9411230113
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Long
There were many times when Virginia center Bryan Heath pictured himself in the red-and-white uniform of the football team against whom he will play his final regular-season game.
Heath is a North Carolina native who grew up following North Carolina State and went to the Wolfpack's offensive-line camp for three years. Even now, he wonders how he said no to State.
``I felt that was where I was going to go,'' he said. ``Until my senior year, I didn't think I would be big enough to play Division I-A because I wasn't but about 225 pounds. I did everything I could - ran and worked hard in the weight room - so, hopefully, I could go there.''
Ultimately, the Wolfpack did offer Heath a scholarship, but he committed to Virginia before taking any other visits.
``I wanted to take the visit to N.C. State anyway,'' Heath said, ``and, after that visit, I remember telling my parents on the ride home, `I don't know what I'm going to do.' I was legitimately miserable.''
The N.C. State assistant coach who recruited Heath was Mike O'Cain, now the Wolfpack's head coach.
``I was pretty much of a mess that Sunday,'' Heath said. ``On Monday, I told them I was coming here, and that day Coach O'Cain drove up from Raleigh. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, tell him that I was coming to Virginia and not State.
``When I told him I was coming to Virginia, I still didn't know if it was the right decision. Even when we played them my freshman year [and] beat them 31-0, I was sitting there and I knew everybody. I knew all their players and their coaches and I actually almost felt sorry for them.''
No wonder Heath uses the word ``special'' to describe Virginia's meeting with the Wolfpack at 11 a.m. Friday at Scott Stadium.
That's not exactly the way Heath feels about North Carolina and some of the other ACC teams from his home state, but the different rivalries have one common characteristic.
``When you leave the state, everybody says, `Why in the world do you want to leave? You've got State and Carolina and all these good programs down here,''' said Heath, who lives in Kernersville, a 10-minute drive from Winston-Salem.
``We've been successful against those teams and I take a lot of pride in that. You come up here and you want to beat those teams because, if you don't, you'll hear about it. I'll probably end up living in North Carolina.''
Virginia has not failed to win seven games during Heath's career, although the Cavaliers entered this season with a tarnished reputation after back-to-back November collapses.
It was a team with a major question mark, one Heath never tried to hide.
``The offensive line ... beyond a shadow of a doubt,'' he said. ``The other players knew it. I knew it. Everybody knew it. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to perform.
``I thought people were worried. They didn't think we were going to be any good. The feeling was, `If the offensive line comes together, Virginia can have a good season. If it doesn't, they won't.' I think we've done well.''
None of Virginia's offensive linemen was named first- or second-team All-ACC, although the Cavaliers rank third in the ACC in total offense and fourth in rushing offense. They rushed for 249 yards Saturday against a Virginia Tech team that was ranked 20th in Division I-A in rushing defense.
Florida State junior Clay Shiver was the first-team All-ACC center for the second year in a row, ``and I'm not going to bring him down,'' Heath said. ``I think I'm as good as he is. It does irritate me that here it is, my last chance, and here's a dude who got it as a sophomore.''
Welsh said none of UVa's offensive linemen has graded higher than Heath, who is the strongest player in the program, as reflected by his best lifts of 465 pounds in the bench press, 560 in the squat and 305 in the power clean. Danny Wilmer, the UVa assistant who recruited Heath, said the Cavaliers have never signed a player who was as strong as Heath coming out of high school.
``I started lifting a little bit in the eighth grade,'' Heath said, ``but I'm telling you, from ninth through 12th grade, I would work out before I did anything. I literally did not miss a workout and, if I did, I felt guilty about it.''
Now that sense of responsibility has been shifted to the offensive line in particular and the offense as a whole. At one point in Virginia's 28-25 loss to Duke, Heath confronted quarterback Mike Groh about a lack of productivity in the passing game.
``I just asked him, `You getting time?''' Heath related. ``He said, `Yeah.' So, I said, `What's going on?' I make my point, but one thing I would never do is yell at the quarterback.''
Teammates have come to accept Heath's bluntness; at 8-2, they accept almost anything.
``If somebody needs to be chewed out or told that this is what they've got to do, then that's the way it has to be,'' Heath said. ``I've done that before. It hasn't happened much, [but] if you want to be a leader on the team, you've got to set personal feelings aside.''
by CNB