ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290069
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Virginia Tech would prefer that the Sugar Bowl not be in Atle Larsen's hands Sunday night.
The Hokies wouldn't mind if it came down to his right foot, however.
There is no player on the Big East Football Conference championship team in whom the Hokies' season is more accurately reflected than Larsen.
Tech began with losses to Boston College and Cincinnati before winning nine straight games. The Hokies found themselves in a season-turning victory over Miami.
So did Larsen - even though the Norwegian place-kicker missed four field goal tries that could have provided a punctuation point on how dominant the Hokies were in beating the Hurricanes for the first time.
``I was trying too hard to make it happen,'' said Larsen, preparing for the final game of his college career. ``I made two of six against Miami and then I told myself, `Just do the best you can.'
``There are two kinds of pressure for me. I think I kick better under pressure, but not when I put pressure on myself. If it's `I have to make this one,' I'm usually fine.''
Larsen made only two of eight field-goal attempts in Tech's first three games. Since, he's 10-for-12, and he's made his past five. His personal turnaround began with a Big East-record four field goals in a victory at Pittsburgh.
Hokies coach Frank Beamer never wavered in deciding to keep Larsen as the team's big foot. One reason was that Tech didn't want to use up a year of eligibility for freshman Jimmy Kibble, who has redshirted.
Another was that Larsen had shown he could make pressure kicks last season when Tech's career scoring leader, Ryan Williams, was injured. Larsen, primarily a kickoff man in 1994, made a late field goal from 42 yards to clinch a victory at Southern Mississippi. He also made a pair in a 12-7 triumph at Boston College.
``Those ones he missed against Miami, the game was on TV, and we watched them all in slow motion,'' Beamer said. ``It wasn't only Atle. The operation [on the kick team] wasn't good. You've got to have some consistency there.''
Larsen has provided that lately, although with Tech winning most of its games by lopsided scores, he hasn't had many field-goal chances since midseason. His longest success this year is a 44-yarder against Miami.
When the Hokies scored a tying touchdown with 41 seconds left in the victory last month at Virginia, Larsen's extra point would have been the winning margin had not Antonio Banks run back an interception for a score as the clock expired. Larsen also hit a huge 34-yarder with 6:58 remaining against the Cavaliers.
Kickers are big on focus and envisioning situations, and Larsen sees Sunday night's date with Texas possibly being decided by his foot. He might be accurate, in a game that's expected to be close and without many points.
The prospect of playing overtime - being used in bowl games this year for the first time - makes Larsen's foot bigger, too.
``There's something that tells me it's going to come down to me,'' Larsen said. ``It's my last game, and it's hard to explain what kind of thrill it is for me to be part of the biggest game in Tech's history.
``If we have the ball last, it can happen. It happened in the game at Virginia, but I haven't had to make a field goal at the end yet. This might be that time.''
Before Sunday night's kickoff, Beamer will ask Larsen from what distance he feels comfortable trying a field goal. The Tech coach does that every game, getting counsel from Larsen after the kicker checks the wind and field conditions.
``I pretty much leave it up to him,'' Beamer said.
Larsen isn't awed by the prospects of kicking in the Louisiana Superdome. There is no wind indoors, and Larsen prefers booting on artificial turf, too, on a field with no crown.
``You kick it, and if you hit it in the middle like you should, you know where it's going,'' he said.
Spoken just like a mechanical engineering major with a 3.2 grade-point average. Larsen arrived at Tech last season primarily because of its engineering reputation. He left Morehead State when the Ohio Valley Conference program said it was going to begin dropping scholarships.
He didn't go on scholarship at Tech until this season. He had to prove himself with the backup success in 1994. At Morehead, in a sagging Division I-AA program, he just didn't get many opportunities.
``I just wanted a chance when I came to Tech,'' he said. ``I mostly was interested in getting a good degree from a school known for engineering.''
A foreign-exchange student who came to Larue County, Ky., (Elizabethtown, south of Louisville) for his senior year of high school, Larsen never expected friends in his homeland would have an opportunity to see him kick.
However, condensed, taped versions of NFL games and major bowl games air in Norway. Not that his family will see him in Sola. His mother, Britt Marie, and stepfather, Oddvar Svendsen, arrived in New Orleans on Thursday for the Sugar Bowl.
``They've never seen me kick in a game before,'' Larsen said. ``That's another reason it's a special game for me.''
However, he isn't asking Beamer for anything more than he always has.
``A chance,'' he said. ``One last chance.''
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Virginia Tech place-kicker Atleby CNBLarsen has made 10 of his past 12 field-goal attempts after making
only two of eight in the first three games of the season. Graphic:
Chart by staff: Larsen kicks.