ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060056
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: COLLEGE NOTEBOOK
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY
Four other moves during the 1990s did not make move No.5 any easier for former Virginia Tech and Virginia assistant football coach Phil Elmassian.
Elmassian, who entered the job market after his boss, Dan Henning, stepped down at Boston College, surfaced on the staff of Wisconsin coach Barry Alvarez. He will work with the Badgers' defensive backs.
``Ten years ago, I don't think I would have worried as much,'' Elmassian said. ``But at age 45, even though I know a lot of people, I can tell you the phone wasn't ringing off the hook.''
Elmassian was at Virginia in 1990, followed by stops at Syracuse, Virginia Tech for the second time, Washington and Boston College. He left the defensive coordinator's post at Tech to coach the secondary at Washington; then, he left Washington to become defensive coordinator at BC.
Almost immediately, he knew it was a mistake.
``I never regretted much, but I regret the day I stepped on the [BC] campus,'' Elmassian said. ``I went up there with the Virginia Tech plan and it just didn't work. We'd have our staff meetings and every day I would say, `We're in trouble.'''
That feeling stemmed from the Eagles' talent level on defense, although the entire situation deteriorated when it was discovered BC players had bet on college football games, including some involving their team.
``It was something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy,'' Elmassian said of his BC headaches. ``If this had been my first job, I would not have coached another job. I would have gotten out of the profession.
``But, it isn't so much what happened at BC and what happened to me. It's that I left Washington. That job was everything I wanted, but I got hung up on the coordinator's thing and the opportunity to go back East.''
And, as a native of Wellesley, Mass., Elmassian had in the back of his mind that one day he might be the Eagles' head coach. Now, he's just happy to be working.
``This has been a godsend,'' said Elmassian, who had been considering an opportunity to become the defensive coordinator at Nevada-Las Vegas. ``It's just nice to have a job. This is the 10th anniversary of the [Bill] Dooley firing [at Virginia Tech]. Your perspective changes over time.
``You hate to go through it, but I think it's hardened me a little bit. I used to think, `Oh, shoot, give me players and a ball and we can do what we did at Virginia Tech.' I'll never think that way again.''
RECRUITING: Wake Forest football signees included Jimmy Caldwell, the son of Deacons head coach Jim Caldwell. The younger Caldwell, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound wide receiver, had 10 touchdown receptions as a senior for Mount Tabor High School in Winston-Salem, N.C. ...
Maryland signee Lee Carmichael, a 6-4, 210-pound wide receiver from Gloucester, N.J., is the son of one-time NFL wide receiver Harold Carmichael. N.C. State was considered the front-runner for Carmichael until new Terps coach Ron Vanderlinden hit the recruiting trail.
* Clemson has received a basketball commitment from Jason Pryor, a 6-1 guard who is averaging close to 40 points for Fort Walton Beach (Fla.) High School. ...Virginia signee Chezley Watson, a 6-1 guard from East Hall, Ga., scored 51 points in a recent game and has a 32-point average.
FAVORITISM?: Maryland center Obinna Ekezie, who fouled out in 18 minutes of play Saturday during a 74-69 loss to Wake Forest, expressed frustration at what he considered to be preferential treatment for Deacons center Tim Duncan, who has fouled out of one game in two seasons.
``It's tough,'' Ekezie said. ``You get the first foul called against you, then the second, then you become tentative. Once he sees that you have to play that way, he takes it to the basket. And he knows, if there is any contact, he's going to get the call.
``I understand that, but you can't give him everything. I mean, give me a chance to play defense. All I'm asking is just a fair chance to play against him. That's all. You just want to stand there and hope he misses the shot.''
UPSET OF YEAR?: North Carolina State not only had lost 15 consecutive regular-season ACC games before defeating then-No. 7 Clemson 58-54 on Saturday, but the Wolfpack was without leading scorer C.C. Harrison for the second game in a row.
``Coaches live and die,'' said Herb Sendek, N.C. State's first-year coach. ``These guys go through here once and our seniors, Danny [Strong] and Jeremy [Hyatt] I'm just eternally grateful for those guys. These are the guys who go out every night and lay it on the line.''
The unsung hero for the Wolfpack was freshman Justin Gainey, making his second start at point guard. N.C. State finished the game with three turnovers, the fewest by a Clemson opponent in the history of the Tigers' program.
MATHENY RECOGNIZED: VMI basketball player Matt Matheny, a sophomore from Cave Spring High School, is the 1997 recipient of the Frank Wright Webb Scholarship. Webb, a member of the class of 1969, was killed in Vietnam. The scholarship always goes to a basketball player.
FERRUM PHENOM: Ed Alvarez, a junior on the golf team at Ferrum College, represented Honduras in the nine-country Central America Amateur and captured individual honors. Alvarez, ranked third among players from his country, had a 72-hole total of 297 to defeat countryman Geoffrey Schacher by two strokes.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 linesby CNB