ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610150033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LEXINGTON
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The visitors' side of the Alumni Memorial Field scoreboard didn't light up Saturday.
However, that wasn't VMI's only way of keeping the score respectable on a sunny afternoon against Marshall, the nation's top-ranked Division I-AA football team.
The 9,165 who almost filled the stadium - the fifth-largest crowd in VMI's home history - should have left happy, no matter which side they occupied.
The Thundering Herd remained perfect with a convincing 45-20 victory. Although the winless Keydets clinched their 15th straight losing season with their 14th consecutive loss to Marshall in what likely was the teams' last meeting, VMI coach Bill Stewart thought it was a beautiful day, too.
"We didn't come in to make it close,'' Stewart said. "We didn't come just to make it respectable.''
However, the Keydets (0-6) did, and when a team hasn't learned how to win much less done so, that's progress. Marshall built a 35-7 halftime bulge, then did something Stewart - whose postgame monologue had more different opinions than the recent Clinton-Dole debate - managed to sum up in three words.
"Hey, we tried,'' said the third-year coach.
It could have been otherwise. The Keydets played with precision for the most part. Stewart was unhappy with his team's four penalties. Most coaches would love to see so few hankies.
From kicker Mike Harris, VMI got one of the five longest field goals in school history, a 49-yarder. He also booted a 47-yarder. VMI averaged 43.5 yards per punt.
Against a program that's headed for Division I-A and plays most weeks like it belongs there now, the Keydets had only two turnovers.
The Thundering Herd had 539 yards, but 140 of those came on three scoring plays of 35 yards or longer. Offensively, VMI had a balanced attack and kept the ball for an astounding 36 minutes.
Of course, the Keydets still haven't won, and there are no sure W's in their remaining five games. However, if VMI plays with the Herd mentality it did against a superb team, it will progress.
In their first six meetings in the '90s, Marshall beat VMI by an average score of 51-9. This Herd has players who have come from Notre Dame, Florida State, West Virginia and Ohio State.
A couple of VMI players may once have gotten a transfer on the Greater Richmond transit system. That's why Stewart was as pleased as he's been this season.
His VMI record is only 5-23, which, through 21/2 years, is worse than either of his two predecessors at the post, Eddie Williamson and Jim Shuck. Stewart, however, seems to have more patience, not to mention a fire that burns brighter than the yellow in the school tie he wears on the sideline.
"The only thing that sticks in my gut,'' he said, "is that the damn naysayers are winning. They're winning.''
At an institution where tradition isn't everything, it's the only thing, VMI's best opportunity to turn around its football program is a new league, one that's continuing to be discussed, one into which VMI fits better historically, geographically and competitively.
Stewart doesn't have time to wonder, however, whether the Keydets will ever take the road north by finding a new home other than the Southern Conference.
He's scratching his head about what's in his own program.
"I don't know,'' Stewart said, "if we're a good team, a bad team or a middle of the road team.''
Then, Stewart smiled. How often can a coach legitimately do that after a 25-point loss?
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS STAFF VMI fullback Jasonby CNBWhite is brought down by Marshall defender Andre Goines (36) in the
first quarter.