ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 5, 1996 TAG: 9610070128
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
VIRGINIA'S TIKI BARBER THINKS the 12th-ranked Cavaliers will have no problem with Georgia Tech today in Atlanta.
When Virginia named Todd White and Tiki Barber as its football co-captains, no one could have envisioned White as the diplomatic one.
Yet, there was White, the king of the sound byte, warning his UVa teammates on the perils of looking past Georgia Tech.
``I'll be the voice of reason - for once,'' said White in his weekly visit with the media. ``I don't know of too many people who aren't taking [the Yellow Jackets] seriously. If you find any, could you please point them out to me.''
He might want to chat with Barber, who said it doesn't bother him that Georgia Tech might have its best team since its national co-championship in 1990.
``You know, it really doesn't,'' said Barber, leading the ACC in rushing, scoring and all-purpose yardage. ``I never think about how good an opposing team is. We're going to go down there and do the best that we can.
``I think we have better athletes. We have a better gameplan. We have better coaches. I think we can play with them and easily beat 'em.''
Hello, bulletin board.
``Last year, all [the media] talked about was, `Georgia Tech has the No.1 rushing defense in the country,' and I rushed for four touchdowns and however many yards against them,'' Barber said. ``It's all talk. I know it's been said before, `That's why they don't play it on paper.'''
Virginia (4-0, 2-0) has won the past four games in the series, including a 41-14 victory last year, when Barber carried 20 times for 119 yards and tied a modern-day UVa record with four rushing touchdowns.
That Georgia Tech team won five of its last eight games to finish 6-5 and might have edged the Cavaliers for a Peach Bowl bid if not for a last-minute, 18-17 loss at Georgia.
``I don't know if it would be an upset if Georgia Tech beat us,'' White said. ``Georgia Tech only lost to North Carolina and [the Yellow Jackets] played them well. And, then Carolina went and played Florida State well.
``I'll leave it to somebody else to do the math on that, but I think it comes out to `good team.'''
White said he knows the Yellow Jackets (3-1, 3-1) will be prepared because he once played for Larry New, who has coached Georgia Tech's defensive line for the past two seasons.
``It's a disadvantage sometimes and an advantage with him being over there,'' said White, who was a redshirt freshman in 1994, New's final season at Virginia. ``The one advantage is, I know what he tells them.
``He used to coach at Georgia Tech before he came here and he would talk about [the Yellow Jackets] like they had the plague. I can imagine what he's telling them now about us. Before the game, I might mention him once or twice [and] send a few chills down guys' backs.
``He's going to help me with my pregame talk.''
A victory over 12th-ranked Virginia probably would lift Georgia Tech, 1-11 against ranked teams over the past five seasons, into the Top 25 for the first time since 1992. The Cavaliers have spent 33 consecutive weeks in the polls, the ninth-longest streak in Division I-A.
``I view all games as dangerous games,'' said UVa coach George Welsh, who said he was pleased with his team's intensity in practice this week after a 37-13 victory over Texas. ``We've got to put Texas behind us or we'll get beat.''
Welsh planned little contact this week for Barber, who suffered a hip pointer in the closing minutes against the Longhorns, but expects few ill effects for today's game, which will be televised regionally by ABC starting at 3:30p.m.
``It's just pain,'' Barber said. ``I've had it before. It's something I'll play through, nothing big. All we have to do is fight through this one, give Georgia Tech a good butt-whipping and take a break.''
This will be the first of three straight weeks that only one of the state's Division I-A teams, Virginia and Virginia Tech, will be in action. The Hokies are idle this week, UVa has an open date next week and then Tech is off again Oct.19.
VMI (0-4) and Ferrum (0-3) will be looking for their first victories of the season today when they visit Georgia Southern (1-3) and Newport News Apprentice (2-2), respectively.
Georgia Southern, ranked 25th in Division I-AA, has won its three meetings with the Keydets by a combined score of 137-13. Ferrum, which hasn't opened a season with four consecutive losses since its 1986 team was 0-5, beat Apprentice 36-0 last season.
Washington and Lee tailback Seth McKinley, hobbled by a broken foot, may make his first appearance of the season when the Generals (1-2) entertain Randolph-Macon (2-1) at 2p.m. The series is deadlocked 20-20-3, but W&L has not beaten the Yellow Jackets in the 1990s.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Virginia's Anthony Poindexter (3) and the rest ofby CNBthe Cavaliers are looking to beat Georgia Tech for the fifth
straight time.