ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 1996 TAG: 9610010059
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: UVA NOTES
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
If one quarterback has started every game and the plan is to play his back-up, preferably in the first half, what exactly is at issue?
``I don't have an issue to resolve,'' Virginia football coach George Welsh said Monday at his weekly news conference. ``You're the ones who have created the issue. You always create the quarterback problems.
``I don't. You guys [in the media] do. Some things I don't want to answer. I want to play Aaron Brooks. [Tim] Sherman is the No.1 quarterback. He's the starter and that's it. I think it's simple.''
That's the way it appeared Saturday night, after the Cavaliers' 37-13 victory over 13th-ranked Texas. Sherman seemingly answered all questions about his status by passing for 180 yards and rushing for 44.
``He's our quarterback now,'' Welsh said after the game.
Case closed.
``I may take it back,'' Welsh said Monday. ``I haven't made that decision yet. After the game, that's 11:30 [p.m.] or something. I was happy for him. I was happy for the team that he played so well.''
Case reopened?
``I have to think a lot of things,'' Welsh said. ``I can't tell you what goes into those decisions. Aaron Brooks is a hell of an athlete with a great arm, so I want to play him. I think he can help us.
``The issue is, they were so close [in the preseason] that they both deserved to play. But, it's never been an issue to me. They're still very close in practice.
``Whether Brooks would have done what Sherman did Saturday night there's no way to know. Maybe we had a better game plan. Maybe the coaches did a better job getting ready.''
TIKI TOPICS: After the second of three first-quarter scoring runs Saturday, Tiki Barber passed an official who was signalling touchdown and gave him a high-five.
``That was impulsive, man,'' Barber, not usually the demonstrative sort, said Monday. ``He was just there. I did touch his hand. He didn't say anything.''
Said Welsh: ``Is it all right then? There'll be a memorandum from the [ACC] office this week, saying you can't high-five an official.''
*A first-half downpour did not slow Barber, who had one of his most frustrating games late last season at Maryland, where he repeatedly slipped on the rain-slickened Byrd Stadium turf.
``I heard it was going to rain [Saturday] and I was kind of thinking about the Maryland game,'' he said. ``I learned a lot about how not to cut that day. I remembered to slow down and keep my feet under me. It paid off.''
*Barber said he turned on his computer Sunday night and found close to 100 messages on his e-mail, many left by Texas fans before Saturday night's game.
``They were saying things like, `You may have been good so far, but Texas is going to kill you,''' Barber said. ``Or, `Ricky Williams is going to take your Heisman highlights.' To those, I wrote back.
``I was like, `All I can say is, 121 yards, three touchdowns, 37-13.' And then I added a little something at the end: `These might have been the worst guys we've played so far.'''
*The game hadn't been over for more than 30 minutes Saturday night when Barber brought up Iowa State running back Troy Davis, who rushed for 378 yards Saturday afternoon against Missouri.
``Did you hear Troy Davis' numbers?'' Barber asked. ``I couldn't believe it. I looked at that and said, `He had more [yards] that game than I had all season.'''
RECRUITING: Virginia is in the top three, with Florida and Tennessee, for quarterback Tim Olmstead from Binghamton, N.Y., by way of Woodberry Forest School in Orange.
Woodberry Forest coach Bill Davis said Olmstead, rated the nation's No.8 quarterback prospect by SuperPrep magazine, has a ``second tier'' that includes North Carolina and Ohio State.
BY THE NUMBERS: The victory over Texas marked the eighth consecutive season in which Virginia has beaten at least one Top 25 team. UVa has 15 victories over nationally ranked teams, 14 since Welsh's arrival in 1982.
MISCELLANY: Welsh said a two-game series with Auburn will begin Aug.30, 1997, when Auburn comes to Charlottesville. UVa's ticket office has 500 tickets remaining for an Oct.19 game with North Carolina State. The tickets became available when State did not need its full allotment. Virginia's 4-0 start is its fourth of the 1990s, but, the only time this decade the Cavaliers won nine games, they lost their openers (1994-95).
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN/Staff. Tim Sherman has passed his test andby CNBis UVa's starting quarterback. color. GRAPHIC: Chart: Pulling rank.