THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 31, 1995 TAG: 9508260499
SECTION: FOOTBALL '95 PAGE: Z16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COLLEGE FORECAST
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 78 lines
There are two schools of thought among the top programs in the Big East when it comes to scheduling:
Gobble up as many easy victories as possible or line up the titans, hoping enough wins demonstrate you are one.
For the former, we offer Virginia Tech (No. 24, according to The Associated Press preseason poll) and West Virginia (No. 23), a pair of projected bowl teams.
One of the Hokies' four non-conference foes is nationally ranked Virginia, but the others are among the bottom 21 of this year's 108 Division I-A teams, according to The Sporting News: Cincinnati (87th), Akron (106th) and Navy (107th). West Virginia has a toughie at East Carolina, but otherwise feasts upon Purdue (54th), Maryland (63rd) and Kent (105th).
For the latter, we offer Miami and Boston College, the Big East's other two projected bowl teams. Miami was 11th in the AP poll, BC 22nd.
The Hurricanes play non-conference games against top-ranked Florida State and No. 16 UCLA, a respectable Baylor team and Division I-AA Florida A&M. The Eagles are practically adjunct members of the Big Ten, with games against No. 12 Ohio State, No. 14 Michigan and a so-so Michigan State team. They also play No. 9 Notre Dame and get one breather in Army (101st in The Sporting News).
You can argue which is the more prudent way to schedule. But there's no arguing Miami and BC will have more games worth watching than Tech and West Virginia.
MIAMI VICE: This year in college football, a player who celebrates a big play by ripping off his helmet to mug for the camera, firing off an imaginary gun or wading into the crowd to mingle with fans will draw an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
So will a player who kneels to pray.
Guess which of those transgressions a Miami Hurricane is least likely to commit?
``When you make a great play, you want to celebrate and let people know you made a great play,'' Hurricanes' middle linebacker Ray Lewis said.
Well, Ray, look at the bright side. Sports Illustrated notes that prohibiting players from helmet showboating ``should shave at least 10 minutes off Miami games.''
TEMPLE OF GLOOM: At Temple, they can hardly give away tickets to watch the football team.
So they give the games away instead.
The Owls will play just four times this season at home field Veterans Stadium, where they averaged an abysmal 15,522 fans last year - or 23.7 percent of capacity.
Temple - which has won six games in four years - has found a unique way to make money on home games: Sell them.
Temple sold a home game Kansas State owed the Owls and will travel instead to Manhattan, Kansas, to play. And the Owls moved a Nov. 11 home game with Virginia Tech to RFK Stadium in Washington, which likely will be an overwhelmingly pro-Hokie crowd.
Virginia Tech athletic director Dave Braine offered Temple $275,000 to play their game in Blacksburg. A standard guarantee for the visitor in a Big East game is $125,000, Braine said. The Owls declined, not wanting to completely surrender a home conference game.
BAD MEMORIES: Virginia Tech plays at Rutgers this year for the first time since 1992. Much has changed in the interim.
The last visit was the Hokies' low point in a moribund 2-8-1 season that resulted in the departure of the offensive and defensive coordinators and put coach Frank Beamer on shaky ground. Tech led Rutgers by 21 points after one quarter, 19 points after three quarters and by 12 with 7:50 to play.
Rutgers went 61 yards on two plays in the game's final 14 seconds to win, 50-49.
``Worst day in my life on a football field,'' Beamer said recently.
Tech lost two more games to close out that season, but is 17-7 the last two seasons. MEMO: Special Section
KEYWORDS: SUPPLEMENT SPECIAL SECTION VIRGINIA COLLEGE
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