ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611050021
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
Virginia Tech's football team knows it will be home for most of November, but won't be home for the holidays.
The Hokies may be 6-1, but they also realize that in one fashion, they're about where they were after an 0-2 start last season.
They still must prove themselves.
"We haven't beaten anyone great,'' Tech center Bill Conaty said Saturday. "We do think we're a pretty good team. We're going to see if we are.''
Tech clinched a bowl bid for a fourth consecutive season with another pasting of a patsy, a 47-16 wind-swept victory over Southwestern Louisiana.
It shouldn't have been that close. In a game of field position posturing, the Ragin' Cajuns were often backed up in the shadow of the Lane Stadium scoreboard. Imagine what might have happened had the Hokies taken advantage of the geography and two blocked punts.
"We know we've got to be better,'' Tech coach Frank Beamer said.
The Hokies have three of their final four games at home, against East Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia, along with a visit to Miami. Those four are a combined 22-8 against Division I-A opposition.
For starters, Tech's wins have come by a 24-point average over six teams with losing records. The group has a combined 17-36 mark against I-A teams, and four of those 12 wins came against others among the vanquished.
Entering the date with the Cajuns, Tech's schedule strength had ranked 98th on the NCAA computer among the 106 I-A teams that play at least nine I-A foes.
The remainder of the season, as Beamer said, "will determine how we're thought of.''
The Hokies also may have an unsettling date Wednesday, when a Montgomery County grand jury is expected to hand down indictments stemming from an Aug. 31 melee that involved football players.
It will be surprising if some of the Hokies' seasons don't end by suspension before ECU even gets to town.
Beamer's team has coped to date with an unsettling, if successful, season marked by several player suspensions. Conaty said there hasn't been much talk within the team about the grand jury probe.
"There's been a little bit of that, but not a lot, because we don't know what will happen, just as you don't know,'' the senior center said. "It may be in the back of our minds, with people thinking `What's going to happen?'''
The Hokies' lack of consistency might be traced to the off-field problems involving a few players, "because a team has to jell, a unit has to jell,'' Conaty said. "Even if a third-teamer or backup special teams guy is the one, it's a loss of continuity.''
The Hokies also know it will take more than senior leadership - 13 starters are in their last season - if Tech is going to produce back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in school history.
Tech pounded Southwestern Louisiana as it has most other opponents this season, with a ground game that is averaging 245 yards per game.
Against East Carolina (5-2) next Saturday night, just handing off won't do it. The Pirates may have their best front seven on defense in history. ECU did two weekends ago what Tech never has done - win at Miami.
The Hokies also haven't been helped by an October schedule that had two open dates and home games with Temple and Pitt. Tech didn't have to be good, or consistent to get through last month.
It does now.
"What we've proven so far is that we've done a good job scoring when we've needed to score,'' Conaty said. "We've won, and we're going to a bowl.''
No other team in the Big East's short football history can say it has done that in each of the past four seasons. There was a time Conaty couldn't have imagined such success.
"I would have been happy with one,'' he said. "Remember, I was here for the 2-8-1 year [1992]. After that, I said, `Holy what have I gotten myself into.'''
What these Hokies have gotten themselves into is a 12th game, again. How they get there from here will be worth watching.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB