ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512050026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
VIRGINIA TECH'S first Big East Football Conference championship and longest winning streak have earned the team - and its fans - a trip to New Orleans to play Texas on New Year's Eve in the Sugar Bowl.
Add a big bowl of Sugar to Virginia Tech's already sweet football season.
In a year in which they recorded the school's first nine-game winning streak and first Big East Football Conference title, the Hokies now are headed for their first major bowl game.
Thirteenth-ranked Tech (9-2) learned Sunday it will face No.9 Texas (10-1-1) in the 62nd Sugar Bowl on Dec.31 in New Orleans. Kickoff at the 69,065-seat Louisiana Superdome is 7:30 p.m.
Making their past bowl payoffs look like peanuts, Tech will reap $3.5 million (minus expenses) of the Sugar's $8.3 million per-team Bowl Alliance pot. In addition, Tech will receive another $537,000 through the Big East's bowl revenue-sharing plan.
``To say this is a big day for Virginia Tech is an understatement,'' said Dave Braine, the Hokies' athletic director. ``A lot of good things have happened to our program the last few years, but none are as big or as more important than what happened today.''
Of all the possible scenarios in the Bowl Alliance format, this one may have been the best for Tech. The Hokies would have been a decided underdog against either No.6 Notre Dame (9-2) or No.8 Florida State, which are paired up in the Jan.1 Orange Bowl. Texas figures to be a slight favorite against Tech.
After the Fiesta Bowl took No.1 Nebraska and No.2 Florida, the Orange Bowl picked Notre Dame. The Sugar then jumped on the Longhorns, who won the Southwest Conference title with a 16-6 victory at Texas A&M on Saturday night.
The Orange then nabbed FSU fifth, leaving Tech for the Sugar.
Troy Mathieu, the Sugar Bowl's executive director, said his bowl got the best matchup it could have expected for having the fourth and sixth alliance picks.
``We've got two teams that are going to bring a lot of people to New Orleans, and that's the whole reason for us being here,'' Mathieu said. ``If we'd taken Florida State with our first pick [fourth], we felt like the Orange Bowl was leaning towards doing a Notre Dame-Texas rematch. We think we've got a much more competitive game in this scenario.''
Braine told Sugar Bowl officials that he thought Tech could bring as many as 25,000 fans to the game. The Hokies' first allotment of tickets will total 15,000.
``If they need more, tickets may be available,'' Mathieu said. ``There are always tickets available - somewhere.''
Tech coach Frank Beamer, who rallied his club from an 0-2 start, said there's ``going to be a lot of happy Hokies down there on Bourbon Street. Tell people in New Orleans if you see a guy with a grin on his face, that's a Hokie.''
Beamer said the Sugar bid was just another step for a program on the rise. The Hokies played in the lower-tier Independence Bowl in Shreveport, La., after the 1993 season, then played in the middle-tier Gator Bowl in Gainesville, Fla., after last season.
``Once you get your foot in the door, and we do now, the best thing we can do now is take a lot of fans and win the football game,'' Beamer said. ``I think we'll be a Top 10 team if we do that.
``If we don't win the game, it won't kill our drive, but [winning] sure would help.''
Tech's players, who gathered to watch Sunday's selection show, were elated to be heading to New Orleans. While the Hokies plan to soak up Bourbon Street, they have four quarters besides the French Quarter on their mind.
Cornell Brown, Tech's All-America defensive end, noted this team, unlike last year's squad, will head south on a roll.
``We've got to make everybody understand before we leave here what we're going down there to do,'' Brown said. ``We're going there to win the game first and earn the national respect we deserve.''
Tech quarterback Jim Druckenmiller said he remembers watching the Sugar Bowl on TV as a youngster.
``I never figured I'd end up playing in one, though,'' he said. ``Now, if we can just go down there and win. Now that really would be sweet.''
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Tech football players at the Jamisonby CNBAthletic Center get the word Sunday via television that they will
play the Texas Longhorns in the Sugar Bowl. color. Graphic: Chart by
staff.