Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 14, 1995 TAG: 9511140091
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Welsh isn't convinced that UVa and Virginia Tech should play on the final weekend of the football season.
``I would rather see it in the middle of the season,'' said Welsh, whose 14th-ranked Cavaliers (8-3) entertain the 20th-ranked Hokies at noon Saturday at Scott Stadium. ``With our contract with ABC and theirs with CBS now, television might dictate to us anyway.''
Welsh was not swayed by the reminder that many teams end their seasons with traditional rivals, such as the games between Auburn and Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan and Texas and Texas A&M.
``That doesn't mean we have to,'' Welsh said. ``I think they're wrong. If it were a conference game, it would be different. A lot of those traditional rivalries are conference games. This is not.
``How many Tech games since I've been here have not been played at the end of the season [seven of 13]? We did not play them in the last game in 1984. We did not play them in the last game in 1985 or '86, '87, '88 or '89.
``So, where is the great tradition of playing Virginia and Virginia at the end of the season?''
Welsh won't get much agreement from the Hokies, especially Tech athletics director Dave Braine, an assistant coach on Welsh's first staff in 1982.
``To me, it's very irritating,'' said Braine in an interview this summer. ``If I were in the same shoes, I'd do the same thing, but you saw what happened last year.''
The Cavaliers, who were to have played Tech in the final game, agreed to move a game with North Carolina State to the end of the season for TV purposes. After beating the Hokies 42-23 in Blacksburg, UVa was upset at home by the Wolfpack 30-27.
``Virginia Tech, in a lot of ways, was more important to us than North Carolina State,'' Welsh said. ``As it turned out, if [the outcomes] would have been switched, we would have been better off.''
The Cavaliers, looking at a possible Fiesta Bowl bid if they had beaten the Wolfpack, fell into a tie for third place in the ACC and settled for the Independence Bowl.
NOT LOBBYING: Welsh, who occasionally has gotten on the phone to promote the Cavaliers to bowl committees, said he would devote his energies to preparing UVa to meet the Hokies.
``I've learned my lesson,'' he said Monday at his weekly news conference. ``I have not done it this year and I'm not going to do it because it doesn't mean a damn thing. I found that out the last couple of years.''
It has been speculated that the winner of the Tech-UVa game will receive a bid to the Gator Bowl, which has the second choice of teams from the ACC and Big East Conference, although there is one school of thought that the Hokies might get the bid win or lose.
``I'm not in this for that,'' said Welsh, who feels that his program received all the publicity it needed from a 33-28 upset of then-No. 2 Florida State. ``We've had a lot of response from recruits and people around the country.''
WORKHORSE: Junior tailback Tiki Barber will have the benefit of an extra game in his sweep through the UVa record book, but he needed only 11 games to break Gary Helman's record for rushing attempts in a season, 229, set in 1969.
Barber, whose durability was once in question, has 115 carries in the past four games and 247 for the season. The fact that quarterback Mike Groh also has broken the UVa record for passing attempts (306) in a season is a reflection of greater attention to clock management.
OVERLOOKED: Senior tailback Kevin Brooks, who rushed for 103 yards Saturday in relief of Barber, has become the 11th player in UVa history to rush for more than 2,000 yards in a career. Brooks' longest gain of the season was 15 yards until he had runs of 18, 18 and 19 yards among his first five carries.
JEFFERS DOUBTFUL: Welsh said he would invoke his ``disaster rule'' if necessary to get wide receiver Patrick Jeffers in the lineup Saturday, but Welsh wondered if bad weather would allow Jeffers to get enough practice time to be effective.
Jeffers has missed the past two games with a pulled hamstring, the second hamstring injury he has had this season. He continues to lead the Cavaliers in receptions with 34 and, with 108 for his career, might have challenged for the UVa record (128) if not for his injuries.
ODDS 'N' ENDS: Groh officially did not have a completion Saturday to either of his top two receivers, Jeffers or Pete Allen, although Allen did catch a two-point conversion pass. ... An apparent 44-yard pass to Allen was nullified when it was ruled that Allen had been in motion. However, the Cavaliers were beneficiaries of pass-interference calls against Maryland that kept alive drives leading to a touchdown and a field goal.
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
by CNB