Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
VMI athletic director Davis Babb thinks the game has a future, but he doesn't know if it's an immediate future.
The Keydets are locked into 10 games each year - eight Southern Conference games and traditional contests with Richmond and William and Mary. Ideally, VMI would like to fill the final slot on its schedule with a road game against a Division I-A opponent.
The Keydets had one of those games this year, but Vanderbilt dropped them at the last moment. VMI was left scrambling, and independent Liberty, which had been trying to schedule the state's other Division I-AA schools, was eager to fill the void.
The Keydets and Flames are scheduled to meet for the first time Sept.9 in Lexington.
VMI was scheduled to visit Maryland in 1996, but the Terrapins have asked out of that game in hopes of playing a relatively weak Division I-A team they are likely to beat.
Many Division I-A teams are reluctant to schedule I-AA teams because those games do not count toward the six victories the NCAA requires for bowl consideration.
As a result, VMI has an opening on its 1996 schedule, but the Keydets' preference would be to play a Division I-A team that would give them a lucrative guarantee. Vanderbilt and Maryland each would have paid VMI a guarantee of close to $150,000.
VMI would make roughly half that much for a sellout at 10,000-seat Alumni Memorial Field. When the Keydets drew 9,500 for last year's home game with Marshall, they made $65,000.
Although Marshall is making the jump from Division I-AA to I-A, the Thundering Herd is committed to games with VMI in 1995 and '96. Conceivably, Liberty could take Marshall's spot on the VMI schedule after that.
Nobody doubts that the VMI-Liberty series will draw a big crowd this year, particularly since it will be the Keydets' home opener. It could be VMI's first sellout since Navy visited Lexington in 1973.
``I work for a pretty non-controversial man [Rev.Jerry Falwell] who doesn't make outrageous statements very often,'' Liberty athletic director Chuck Burch said Wednesday. ``He said, `See how many tickets you can get because, however many tickets you can get, we'll bring that many people.'''
STAFF STUFF: Kevin Sherman, a former wide receiver at Radford High School and Ferrum College, is the new quarterbacks coach at VMI. Sherman, previously a restricted-earnings coach for the Keydets, fills the vacancy created when Mike Clark was named head coach at Bridgewater.
VMI also lost offensive line coach Bill Legg to West Virginia, his alma mater, but got future considerations. Carey Bailey, a Morgantown, W.Va., product who played at Tennessee and later worked at WVU for two years, has taken over the VMI defensive ends. The Keydets also have hired three restricted-earnings coaches, including Lexington High and VMI alumnus Eric Plogger.
nLiberty head coach Sam Rutigliano had a speaking engagement that prevented him from attending a Wednesday news conference at VMI, but he sent new defensive coordinator George MacIntyre and offensive coordinator Bob Leahy. MacIntyre was the head coach at Vanderbilt from 1978-85, and Leahy coached for the Minnesota Vikings and Buffalo Bills.
RECRUITING: Virginia Tech and Virginia are two of the men's basketball programs that have offered scholarships to Colin Ducharme, a 6-foot-8, 235-pounder from Richmond whom recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons calls one of the top surprises of the summer.
Ducharme said Tuesday that he has received offers from Tech, UVa, North Carolina State, James Madison, Richmond, Davidson and Rutgers. He also plays tight end for the football team at Douglas Freeman High School and hopes to make an early basketball commitment by the end of September.
Ducharme said he is ``totally open'' but he is aware of the perception that Virginia is the team to beat for him. Ducharme's older sister and brother went to UVa, but he has been overwhelmed at the interest in general. ``Last year, at this time, I don't think I had gotten a single letter,'' he said.
LOCAL UPDATE: Former Patrick County High School football star Andy Stanley, who had 10 runs of 50 yards or more and rushed for 2,350 yards as a senior, is on the preseason roster at Emory & Henry. ... O.J. Beane and Isaac Williams off the 1994 Cave Spring team are would-be Wasps, but their Knights teammate, running back Dusty Beekman, is headed to Randolph-Macon.
Robbie Huffman, an All-Group A defensive back last season for Craig County, will enroll at Louisville and has been invited to try out for the Cardinals' football team as a walk-on quarterback.
by CNB