ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230136
SECTION: ORANGE BOWL PAGE: O-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
Entering the fourth quarter of its football game against Virginia on Nov. 29, Virginia Tech didn't have to peek at the scoreboard or hear the roar of the crowd to realize it was in command.
While there was ample time left for UVa to erase an 11-point deficit, the Hokies knew better. They knew the game was over.
``You could tell it was a done deal,'' said Billy Conaty, the Hokies' starting center.
``Just like in a lot of games this year, when it comes mid- or late-third quarter, they're looking for the mercy button, they're pressing it, they're just wanting to get out of there. They're panting, they're very tired. You can see it in their eyes like, `Oh, no, here were go again.'''
And again. And again.
In its rise to the upper echelon of major-college football the past two seasons, Virginia Tech has proven one thing if anything - give the Hokies a late lead and they are going to win.
``We like to think the second half of games belongs solely to us,'' said T.J. Washington, a senior offensive tackle for the Hokies. ``If we're leading or we're close late, we think the game is ours for the taking, it's our game to win.''
Talk about money in the bank. In going 20-3 the past two seasons, Tech is 20-0 in games in which it has led in the second half. The Hokies haven't lost a game in which they've led or were tied in the fourth quarter since 1994 at Syracuse - a span of 30 games.
The longer the game goes, the better the Hokies seem to get.
Check Tech's quarter-by-quarter scoring differential the past two seasons. The Hokies' two most productive quarters by far have been the third, in which they have outscored the opposition by a combined 158-71, and the fourth, which they have owned 189-63.
Just a matter of what's left in the gas tanks, the Hokies say.
``Our tank always seems to have something left in the second half of games,'' said Jim Druckenmiller, Tech's outstanding senior quarterback. ``Meanwhile, you look across the line and the other guys are starting to run on empty. You can tell their tank is about to go dry.''
Mere coincidence? Hardly, said senior defensive tackle Waverly Jackson.
``There's one simple reason for our second-half dominance in games,'' Jackson said. ``It's the man. The main man.''
Tech's secret
The most valuable player in Virginia Tech's football program just might be a guy who never has thrown a pass, never has carried the ball and never has made a tackle.
Mention Mike Gentry's name around Tech football players and it's almost as if God himself has stepped down from the clouds above.
``Not a lot of people know about Mike Gentry,'' Druckenmiller said of the Hokies' strength and conditioning coach. ``But, personally, I think he's the secret here at Virginia Tech. I really believe Mike Gentry is the heart and soul of this program.''
Added Jackson: ``We've had great coaches, we've had great recruiting classes, but I'm telling you the main man is Coach Gentry.
``As soon as you enter the door to Coach Gentry's weight room, it's `Sweat Blood.' That's the first thing you see on the wall and you know you're in a big-time program now.
``I tell recruits, `See that man right there? That's the man who's going to make you a player here at Virginia Tech.'
``The coaches have the power to put you on the field, but Gentry is the guy who's going to make you a player.''
What makes Gentry so effective?
First and foremost, he knows what he's talking about. All of Tech's athletes, not just the football players, swear by the no-frills hunk with the thick mustache.
``Gentry's not all brawn, he's brains, too,'' Conaty said. ``He knows all the right things to do. He doesn't just have you pounding iron; that's not going to work. He specifies for each position what works best.''
Give Gentry a body and let him go to work. He can slim down a big body or bulk up a little body. Moreover, he seems to make all of the bodies he works with faster.
``He takes guys who are pretty good and makes them real football players,'' Conaty said.
``He transforms you,'' said Druckenmiller, whom Gentry proudly refers to as the nation's strongest quarterback. ``All I know is a whole lot more studs walk out of here than walk in.''
The Gentry plan has worked miracles for Tech, a program that rarely attracts the five-star, blue-chip athlete of say a Nebraska, the Hokies' opponent Dec.31 in the Orange Bowl.
Tech and Gentry have to work with what they get. Take former walk-on receiver Michael Stuewe. Under Gentry's watchful eye, the junior has gone from 159 to 188 pounds, reduced his time in the 40-yard dash from 4.8 to 4.4 seconds, and is bench-pressing 260 pounds instead of 170.
Defensive end Lawrence Lewis weighed 240 pounds when he completed his career last year, up 55 pounds from the day he reported as a freshman.
``A guy like Lawrence probably never would have played without Gentry,'' Conaty said.
``Gentry's like a miracle man or something,'' said the 6-foot-3, 298-pound Jackson. ``I came in here as a little man, but I'm going out as a monster.''
Gentry the man
Mike Gentry works every muscle except his mouth. In his 10th season in Blacksburg, the Durham, N.C., native goes about his business quietly and attempts to duck any attention that might come his way.
Gentry politely declined to be interviewed for this story, instead suggesting a story on Eddie Ferrell, Tech's longtime football trainer, or Lester Karlin, the Hokies' veteran equipment man. ``Don't talk to me,'' he said.
Gentry might not talk, but his disciples will. He has a kind of cult following.
``He's almost like a spirit or something,'' said fullback Brian Edmonds, before his Dec.17 suspension from the team. ``You can go into his weight room and you can be having a sluggish day, feel weak and don't want to do this and do that. But if Mike Gentry is standing beside you, you get like this extra burst of energy somewhere to do whatever it takes.''
Gentry, who didn't participate in sports at East Carolina University before graduating in 1979, usually can be found in the Tech weight room 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Conaty and other players repeatedly mention the word ``respect'' when Gentry's name comes up.
``I bet you that most of the players are more scared of him than they are of actual coaches,'' Conaty said. `` He's intense, he doesn't have to go hollering. When he does holler, man, it's frightening. He freaks out. He's just truly into it, wants to win bad and wants his kids to succeed.
``The thing with Gentry is he's a good guy. He's not just a musclehead. He's very approachable about anything, not just some big ogre who's a caveman weight coach.''
Gentry is so important to the Tech athletic program that he is one of only four coaches on the school's athletic staff with a multiyear contract. Football coach Frank Beamer, men's basketball coach Bill Foster and women's basketball coach Carol Alfano are the others.
Beamer said Gentry ``is as good as it gets'' in an area that almost rivals recruiting as the lifeblood of a football program.
``It's great for me because I don't have to worry about things,'' Beamer said. ``With some strength and conditioning coaches, they just want to see how much you can lift. But we're interested in how much you can lift, plus increasing your quickness and speed so you can be the best football player.
``I just stay out of his way and let him do his thing.''
Beamer chuckled when asked if Gentry is the unknown MVP of the Tech program.
``It's funny you'd ask that,'' Beamer said. ``Our players voted for MVP the other day and [Gentry] got one vote. It probably surprises me that not more of 'em had him as their MVP.''
Will he stay?
Little wonder Beamer has lobbied so long and hard for additional athletic facilities. The Merryman Center, scheduled to be finished late in 1997, will include a new weight-room facility for Gentry and his three full-time and two part-time assistants.
``I said a long time ago that we've got the best strength and conditioning coach,'' Beamer said. ``And when we get this building done we're going to have the best strength and conditioning building on the East Coast for the best strength and conditioning coach.''
The players contended it's imperative Tech hold onto Gentry if it wants to keep running with the college game's big boys.
``I'm a little surprised he hasn't left,'' Conaty said. ``I've seen so many coaches come and go. And I'm sure he's had some offers.
``He really is a big reason why Tech has this success. I'm just glad he hasn't left because he's been awesome.
``When a lot of the ex-players come back, they'll go right to Gentry instead of running to the real coaches,'' Conaty said, mentioning former Tech All-American Jim Pyne who now plays guard for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers. ``I know when [he] comes back, he always stops off and sees Gentry first.''
Conaty hopes he will be afforded the same opportunity.
``It would be weird to come back and Coach Gentry not be around,'' Conaty said. ``Yeah, that would be real strange.''
Almost as strange as Tech blowing a fourth-quarter lead.
``Mike Gentry is why we're good late in games,'' Druckenmiller said. ``All I know is when the fourth quarter rolls around, I'm not tired. No one is really tired.
``You see some teams give up in the fourth quarter. I thought UVa was still with us, then you could tell. I don't know if they were done mentally and physically, but they didn't want to play anymore.
``Us, hell, we were ready to go again if we had to. Coach Gentry has made us like that, man.''
For more on Virginia Tech's Orange Bowl trip to Miami, see our Internet page at www.roanoke.com
LENGTH: Long : 182 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON Staff. Mike Gentry (left), Tech's strengthby CNBand conditioning coach, claims Jim Druckenmiller is the nation's
strongest quarterback. color. Graphic: Chart by staff: Virginia Tech
scoring. color. KEYWORDS: MGR