ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 1, 1996 TAG: 9612020119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK STAFF WRITER
Postscripts from the first Commonwealth Cup clash:
So, just how good is the first Virginia Tech football team to win 10 regular-season games?
Listening to Virginia coach George Welsh after the Hokies whipped the Cavaliers 26-9 Friday at Lane Stadium, Tech sounds very good.
"Virginia Tech overall is a great football team,'' Welsh said. "They arguably are the best team we've played this season. Their defense is very good, and it showed.''
No, Welsh wasn't forgetting the Cavaliers played Florida State, which in a 31-24 victory was the only team to score more against UVa than the Hokies did.
"There's no question we're a Top 10 team,'' Tech coach Frank Beamer said. "I don't think there's any question, considering our effort in the second half, that we belong in the Top 10.''
A coach who has a longer sideline streak in the UVa-Tech series than Welsh or Beamer said the Hokies are a "little better'' than he expected. Tech assistant head coach Billy Hite makes an annual August appearance before the Blacksburg Rotary Club and predicts the team's record.
"I predicted nine wins,'' Hite said. "The two I thought we'd have trouble with were Virginia and a combination of Miami and East Carolina. I didn't think Syracuse would [beat Tech].''
TOO CAVALIER: "We had too many mistakes,'' was one of Welsh's postgame opinions, and he obviously wasn't talking about turnovers.
UVa had only two. That's fewer than the Cavaliers gave away in seven of their previous 10 games. Welsh had to be thinking about his team's poor clock management - among other offensive breakdowns in the red zone - just before halftime.
Trailing 7-6, Virginia had a third and less than 1 from the Tech 27. UVa then used a timeout to call nothing more intricate than a quarterback sneak by Aaron Brooks, then burned more than 20 seconds of clock before the next play, and ended up with only a field goal.
``It seems like the last couple of seasons, we seem to make a lot of mistakes toward the end of the season,'' Welsh said.
It shows in the Cavaliers' records.
In the '90s, Virginia is 41-13-1 the first two months of the season, but 12-11 in November.
MUCH NEEDED: The Hokies' victory was a boost to the Big East, a much-maligned football group this season. Tech's triumph was only the second in 10 games for the league against ranked non-conference foes.
The other Big East win over a ranked team was Syracuse's 42-17 victory over Army. Last year, the league was 2-9 in those games in the regular season, before the Hokies and Orangemen won bowls over ranked clubs.
Virginia's loss, coupled with Florida State's victory Saturday, left the ACC 6-3 against ranked non-conference foes. Last season, the ACC was 1-7 in such meetings.
DROPOUT: With the loss to Tech, a 41-week streak in the AP poll for Virginia (7-4) appears in jeopardy. The 20th-ranked Cavaliers have the longest ranked streak in school history.
Nebraska leads at 255 straight ranked weeks. The others ahead of UVa are Colorado, Florida State, Florida, Alabama, Penn State and Michigan.
PICKOFFS: Virginia's interception streak ended at 39 games when the Cavaliers didn't pick off Tech's Jim Druckenmiller, but a lesser chronicled number may have been a bigger factor in UVa's Carquest Bowl-bound season.
UVa has thrown more interceptions (18) than any other ACC club.
STATE STUFF: When Tech's defense limited UVa to three field goals, it left the Hokies' lone conqueror, Syracuse, as the only team to score more than two touchdowns against them. The Orangemen scored one-third of the 21 touchdowns allowed by Tech. UVa tailback Tiki Barber's 162-yard rushing effort was the third-best ground game of his stellar career, topped only by efforts against Florida State (193) and Duke (185) last season. The Hokies have held foes to seven points or less in 40 of 44 quarters this season. Tech center Billy Conaty tied the school record for career starts and consecutive starts, at 47. Barring injury, Conaty will take the mark he shares with graduated line mate Chris Malone (1992-95) in the Hokies' fourth straight bowl appearance.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines KEYWORDS: FOOTBALLby CNB