ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, January 2, 1997              TAG: 9701020066
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
COLUMN: GREG COTE
SOURCE: GREG COTE

AT LEAST ALL THE 24,000 EMPTY SEATS WERE ORANGE

The Nebraska Cornhuskers defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies Tuesday night in what was, without question, the greatest college football game in the history of the Orange Bowl at Pro Player Stadium, a proud tradition spanning several hours.

Motto: Makin' Memories Since 1996!

The 41-21 game was witnessed by 51,212 spectators and 24,000 empty, mockingly orange seats.

In addition to actual fans, this smallest OB Game crowd in 50 years included two multitudinous, honking brass bands and rival mascots Lil' Red and Hokie the Bird. Hokie was back from a two-game suspension for conduct unbecoming a costumed bird. (In that, Hokie the Bird had a bit in common with the 21 Tech players and seven Huskers arrested over the past two years.)

Attendance at the Empty Orange Seats Bowl also was fortified by a grinning woman with a big Corn Head and by hundreds of participants in the requisite Halftime Extravaganza, which featured lots of smoke, a gigantic rippling flag, guys in cowboy hats on stilts, and ``Scooter Lee, the Queen of Line Dancing.''

And I ain't line!

I reckon the many empty seats can be explained not only by the non-championship matchup but by the fact the bowl's sponsor, FedEx, shipped the game from the Orange Bowl Stadium to PPS and delivered it a day ahead of schedule, intentionally confusing people.

Playing the night of New Year's Eve is a killer. Most people don't want to be couped up in a stadium as midnight approaches. They want to ring in the New Year more traditionally, such as firing weapons in the air in their own neighborhood.

When a Miamian is overheard saying ``3 2 1'' on New Year's Eve, he isn't watching the ball drop, he's counting his remaining bullets.

In any case, the Orange Bowl is supposed to be played at the Orange Bowl, and on New Year's night. If you don't believe me, just ask the people who will be hawking parking spaces purely by habit in their front yards neighboring the OB tonight.

Hawker - ``Aqui! Parking spaces only $10! Cheap!''

Motorist - ``But there's no game here tonight ''

Hawker - ``Aqui! Parking spaces only $8! Cheap!''

Tuesday's crowd is what the Orange Bowl Committee gets for switching stadiums in order to enter into the NCAA's Bowl Alliance, a take-the-bad-with-the-good sort of deal that assures a chance at a national-title game every three years, but guarantees something less the other two. A year from now the OB figures to be the title game, and the site will be secondary. This time, the matchup was secondary, and the sparsely populated venue was everything.

Even Nebraska failed to bring its typically huge contingent of red-clad cobheads.

``I looked up in the stands and didn't see many people I knew,'' as 'Huskers coach Tom Osborne put it.

This first OB-not-at-the-OB was supposed to signal the arrival of a Virginia Tech program that Hokie players complained was still unknown and unrespected nationally. Alas, now Tech must return defeated to its campus in whatever city it's in.

The underdog Hokies (also known as the Fighting Gobblers, Shrieking Hens and Yodeling Mice) did keep the game close for a while, thanks to three touchdown passes by Jim Druckenmiller. I don't need to tell you that Drunkenreveler set an all-time record for Most Yards Passing in an OB Game at Pro Player Stadium.

Nebraska, unlike its opponent, was well known even before Tuesday's routine, run-run-runaway, on account of national championships the past two years and 16 previous OB appearances including five of the past six. (There are Miami politicians who spend less time in Dade.)

Despite no championship stakes this time, the victory nevertheless pleased Nebraska, particularly the Cornhuskers' coach, Kernel Tom Orangeborne.

I cannot imagine many others were pleased by the OB's debut in its ambience-challenged new home.

There is not much worse than a lopsided, meaningless bowl game unless it's a lopsided, meaningless bowl game in the wrong stadium.

Greg Cote is a sports columnist for the Miami Herald

LENGTH: Medium:   86 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:   ERIC BRADY STAFF Virginia Tech supporters purchased 
          more than 16,000 tickets for the Orange Bowl. At least one fan still
          had hope for a Tech comeback in the fourth quarter of Tuesday 
          night's game.