ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609170013
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: BOSTON
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It isn't whether Virginia Tech wins or loses today in its Big East Football Conference opener in Beantown.
It's how coach Frank Beamer's team is playing the game.
The visit to Boston College could be the turning point in the Hokies' season. That's because Beamer already made a big call, really the only one he could make.
And it's about time.
Marcus Parker will sit out his second consecutive game on suspension, but the former Salem High tailback in one way might be the most valuable player - in absentia - in the Hokies' season.
That's because he's been made into an example.
Parker missed last week's game at Akron after pleading no contest to a shoplifting charge this summer. He's home for today's date at Boston College for another reason - and a good one.
Beamer is sending an overdue message to his team. Although Parker had nothing to do with an Aug.31 brawl on the edge of the Tech campus in which teammates were allegedly involved in a beating of Atlantic 10 sprint champ Hilliard Sumner, the running back is caught in the middle of it in another fashion.
After recurring troubles with the law in his program, after a public scolding of the team by university president Paul Torgersen, Beamer had to decide whether to reinstate his tailback and continue to endure what no longer are whispers.
When it comes to dealing with his very few wayward players, Beamer can be too soft.
It's the eternal conflict. A coach is supposed to try to keep his team from embarrassing a university, but he's paid to win games.
It is at this point of the game that Beamer struggles. Suspending players for a game against Akron isn't difficult. Doing it for a road conference game - when you're starting tailback is sidelined with injury, too - is.
Beamer said earlier this week on his radio show that he'd discuss whether to reinstate Parker with others. He wasn't specific, but it didn't matter. It was his call, as it has to be. He's the head coach.
Beamer loves his alma mater and the fact he's returned there and has started his 10th season as head coach. However, after the success of recent years and given how much his fellow alumni like him, he should be secure enough - with a five-year, rollover contract, too - to do what he must to save the program's credibility, damn the final score.
``I'd guess about 85 percent of the alumni are glad Frank decided what he did [on Parker],'' a prominent Roanoke Hokie alum said Friday while running through airports.
It is these people who not so long ago could only dream of having their football program mentioned with Nebraska and Miami in one fashion. Now, such ranking is their worst nightmare, in another way.
One Tech starter said this week that before the season and after the Parker incident, the head coach told his team that the next one that got in trouble would be gone.
It is known that most players, weary of the shenanigans and their accompanying headlines, have asked administrators and assistant coaches to urge Beamer to get tough.
But it's's his call.
So, everyone is waiting. Beamer should know by now that you can only fire warning shots in the air so many times before no one pays attention.
That's where the Hokies are now, waiting to see who's dropped. The Aug.31 incident will continue to hang over the team like the rain and low clouds that greeted Tech on its New England arrival Friday.
It likely will loom until a Montgomery County grand jury convenes Oct.8, and maybe longer. Beamer must do more than suspend those involved. They must be kicked off the team.
There is little doubt Parker would be playing today had not the Aug.31 incident forced Beamer to get tougher. He is known as a coach who allows his players a good amount of freedom to grow up.
Obviously, a few have not. Obviously, in what might be called a program with an invisible fence, not-so-tough love isn't enough for some.
This summer, Beamer appeared before the Tech Board of Visitors and discussing the law-and-order in the program, told the university's governing body that the media didn't report on discipline he took at the Sugar Bowl.
Beamer is wrong. It was reported in this newspaper, in the middle of a Sugar Bowl notebook, that redshirt freshman Keith Short was sent home by bus for violating curfew.
How big a deal was that anyway? Short hadn't played, and wasn't going to play. He was an example. Would Beamer have similarly suspended a starter? It's doubtful.
It happened this time because he really had no choice. Had he reinstated Parker, Beamer would have lost support, and displayed to his team that if you break the law, maybe justice won't be swift, but the punishment could be short.
Whether or not Beamer's team wins at BC, he has won in a more important category, respect. And he's perhaps never made a bigger call.
LENGTH: Medium: 94 linesby CNB