ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230140
SECTION: ORANGE BOWL PAGE: O-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
FROM 2-8-1 to consecutive 10-win seasons and major bowls, the Hokies' fifth-year seniors have seen it all.
It was an October Saturday in 1992.
As Virginia Tech's football team was in the process of dropping a 21-17 decision to Louisville, there was a freshman in a clean uniform just stewing on the Hokies' sideline.
``It was so discouraging,'' Billy Conaty said.
``I remember thinking stuff like: `Why did I pick this school?' `Wonder if Maryland or whoever is still interested?'
``That's how bad things were. It was ugly.''
And it would get uglier. Tech, 2-3 after the Louisville loss, wouldn't win another game. The Hokies went 0-5-1 the rest of the way, blowing second-half leads in four of the games.
``Two, eight and one,'' Conaty said. ``I had never heard of such a record.''
Nor had he seen so much team discord.
``By the end of the season, it was literally a joke,'' Conaty said. ``We just knew the game was going to get blown.
``At the end, it was a sense of just giving up, giving in, just loser attitude. No leadership. Nothing team-wise. Everyone was out for themselves. Different agendas. People pointing fingers. People not making big plays. It was just horrible.''
It certainly wasn't the reception Conaty and the rest of Tech's 1992 recruiting class expected.
``All of us were like: `We've got this to look forward to?''' he said.
So what would guys like Jim Druckenmiller, Brian Edmonds, Torrian Gray, Jay Hagood, Waverly Jackson, Shaine Miles, Tim Wade, T.J. Washington, Cornelius White and Conaty do?
A. Pack their bags and take the next bus out of Blacksburg?
Or, B. Stay put for another four years - 1992 was their redshirt season - and try to lead Tech from college football's wasteland.
Fortunately for the Hokies and coach Frank Beamer, everybody answered ``B.''
``For some reason, as we went into that off-season we started to come together more as a team,'' Conaty said. ``You come from such a losing year, that everyone came together that winter and said, `Hey, let's go, let's do good,' hoping for a 6-5 [season]. It seemed like we really had a winning attitude going in and we weren't going to let it crumble, no matter what happened.''
In one of the nation's biggest turnarounds, the Hokies rebounded to go 9-3 in 1993. Tech earned its first postseason bid since 1986, then walloped Indiana 42-23 in the Independence Bowl.
The Hokies shook their loser tag impressively, upsetting Syracuse and Virginia in their final two regular-season games.
``We beat Virginia miraculously,'' Conaty said. ``No one ever fathomed we could beat Virginia, beat Syracuse, after it had killed us the year before. It was such a turnaround, it was unbelievable.'``
The Hokies had a grand December in Shreveport, La., smothering slightly favored Indiana.
``I can remember when we accepted the Independence Bowl bid,'' Gray said. ``It was just the most amazing thing to us. That was like the Super Bowl to us, it really was.''
Conaty agreed.
``At the time it was so significant,'' he said. ``That was the best. The pinnacle of it all. It was so much fun. Then winning the game it was unbelievable.''
What happened in 1993?
Sure, there was the emergence of Phil Elmassian as Tech's new defensive coordinator.
And there was head coach Frank Beamer, on the brink of losing his job coming off the 2-8-1 mark of '93.
``There was a whole lot of crazy stuff going around a bunch of coaching changes and such,'' Druckenmiller said. ``All of a sudden, it was do this, don't do that. It was like night and day.''
Translation: Tech, from the coaching staff on down, got its act together. And the Hokies learned how to win.
``The '92 team had good players and potential,'' Gray said, ``but it didn't know how to win. We learned how to win in 1993. Once we got over that barrier, things became easier for us.''
In 1994, Tech went 8-3 and earned its second consecutive bowl bid, losing to Tennessee 45-23 in the Gator Bowl.
After hitting that speed bump, Tech has had the hammer down the past two seasons.
The Hokies enjoyed a landmark campaign in 1995, winning a school-record 10 games, sharing the Big East Conference title and whipping Texas 28-10 in their first major bowl - the Sugar.
This season, Tech responded with another 10-spot. The 10-1 Hokies took the Big East again via a tie-breaker and are gearing up to face perennial powerhouse Nebraska on Dec.31 in the Orange Bowl.
In their past 21 games, the Hokies are 20-1.
And as Jackson duly noted, ``Ain't nobody talking about 2-8-1 anymore.''
The 10 redshirt freshman who were subjected to the Hokies' '92 horror flick will go out on stage in Miami like no other Tech class.
``Four straight bowl games,'' Conaty said. ``That's pretty amazing, especially when you think about how bad things were that first year you were here.
``But actually, Hagood, me and the others felt like every freshman class. We felt like, `Oh, we'll be better than that.'
``And it just so happened we were, thank God.''
LENGTH: Long : 109 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM Staff. Center Billy Conaty has seen the Hokiesby CNBgo from 2-8-1 in 1992 to four consecutive bowls and back-to-back
10-win seasons.
2. Graphic: Chart by staff: 1996-97 bowl schedule. KEYWORDS: MGR FOOTBALL