ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020117
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
Take that, Virginia Tech's football team said.
Tabbed as bogus by many of the nation's college pundits, the Hokies proved they were for real Sunday night in the 62nd Sugar Bowl.
Forget Tech. The only imposter on the Louisiana Superdome turf was Bevo's bunch - the Texas Longhorns.
Supercharged by big-play man Bryan Still and a defense that shot out the tires of Texas' ``BMW'' offense, the Hokies raced to a 28-10 victory.
Tech, ranked 13th but sure to go higher in the final Associated Press poll, didn't just win, it dominated.
The Hokies (10-2) hooked the 'Horns (10-2-1) so badly that Bevo, Texas' longhorn mascot, reportedly left a souvenir on the Superdome floor early in the fourth quarter with Tech leading 21-10.
If Tech, heretofore college football's No.1 Rodney Dangerfield act, can't get any respect now, the Hokies may be throwing their own cow chips at some people.
``I think this victory shows we belong with the greatest teams in the country,'' said Still, whose 60-yard punt return for a touchdown and 54-yard scoring reception won him Sugar Bowl MVP honors.
``Yeah, I think we proved something,'' said Cornell Brown, Tech's All-America defensive end. ``Nobody gave us any kind of respect at all coming into this game ... nobody ... even gave us a chance of beating Texas.
``They didn't really want to give us some kind of respect, but I think we went out and earned it.''
Tech carved up Texas in typical Hokies fashion: Start slowly, play great defense, make a big play or two on offense and finish quickly.
``It sort of mirrors what our team was about all season long,'' said Frank Beamer, Tech's coach.
As usual, the Hokies weren't pretty, but they got the job done.
Thanks in large part to a season-high 99 yards in penalties and two turnovers, Tech fell behind 10-0 in the game's first 17 minutes.
It almost became 17-0 with six minutes left in the half when Texas free safety Chris Carter dropped an interception with 45 yards of Texas-size real estate in front of him. The ball deflected into the hands of Tech tight end Bryan Jennings for a 20-yard gain.
``It changed the momentum,'' said Carter, although Tech didn't score on that possession. ``I'll never forget that play for the rest of my life. I can run that play 2,000 times times and drop it only the one time you saw tonight. If I make that interception, it would be definitely what we needed.''
Instead, the Hokies got what they needed minutes later. With 2:34 left before halftime, Still made the play that sparked Tech, racing 60 yards for his first punt return for a touchdown in four years at Tech.
So Tech, despite playing what Beamer termed ``fairly awful,'' was down only 10-7 at halftime.
``To be down only three at that time, you just had to feel like there were some better things ahead,'' Beamer said.
Like so many other times in Tech's storybook season, Beamer was right.
Still, who strongly hinted during the week he expected to have a monster game, caught a 27-yard pass from Jim Druckenmiller to the Texas 2-yard line that set up the eventual deciding score - Marcus Parker's 2-yard run.
After William Yarborough made the first of Tech's three second-half interceptions, Tech went up 21-10 when Still got behind Texas cornerback Taje Allen and reeled in a 54-yard bomb from Druckenmiller with 12:28 to play.
With Tech's defense doing a Texas two-step on the Longhorns' offense, it was over. The Hokies gave the 'Horns only 100 total yards in the second half. The Tech rush forced Texas quarterback James Brown into an assortment of bad throws and bad decisions. Torrian Gray, the Hokies' junior rover, capitalized, picking off a pair of Brown aerials on fourth-quarter Texas drives.
``He [Brown] was panicking and just throwing the ball up for grabs. It caught up to him and we caught up to him,'' said Tech tackle Jim Baron, who provided the final margin when he scooped up a Brown fumble and walked 20 yards into the end zone with 5:06 left.
Baron and fellow defensive tackle J.C. Price, along with ends Cornell Brown and Hank Coleman, dominated Texas up front in the second half.
``We said all week it would be strength against strength,'' Price said. ``As the game went on, we started to overpower them.''
Now the Hokies wonder how much power a victory Beamer labeled ``Tech's greatest ever'' will mean in terms of national respect.
At least one previous Hokies naysayer, ESPN analyst Lee Corso, already was backtracking Monday. Corso said the Hokies ``are better than I thought they were'' and were, indeed, worthy of a high final ranking.
Others, though, may not buy into Tech so quickly.
``Sure, there are still going to be doubters out there, but we can't control that,'' Cornell Brown said. ``We don't need anybody's support as long as the guys on this team believe in each other and know we can go out and do it. And that's what we did.''
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff 2 photos: The Sugar Bowl turned intoby CNBa huge Hokies celebration on Sunday night at the Louisiana
Superdome. In photo at top of page, Virginia Tech defensive players
celebrate their sack of Texas quarterback James Brown, who wasn't
feeling good at this point in the contest. In photo above, Hokies
offensive tackle Jay Hagood celebrates the victory with Tech fans.
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