THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 4, 1995 TAG: 9511040486
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
It's black, it's dented, it's ugly and it's rusty.
Virginia Tech's defense would not imagine conducting a meeting, practice or pregame meal without it. And during games, like today's Big East first-place clash with Syracuse (3:30 p.m., WVEC) at Lane Stadium, it has a place of honor on a table next to the defensive team's bench.
It's a workingman's lunch pail, the rallying point of a Hokies defense that is among the nation's best.
``Everybody kind of laughed the first time they saw it,'' Tech linebacker Brandon Semones said. ``It's got a painted VT on it, it doesn't look professionally done. I guess they meant for it to not look good.''
Good guess.
``We didn't want a nice one,'' co-defensive coordinator Bud Foster said.
The Hokies coaches have stressed in recent years that they are a blue-collar defense: few stars, but plenty of hard workers who get the job done. This season, they decided to have a symbol of that.
``It's one of those old blue-collar lunch pails that the man who wears a hard hat brings to work with him,'' Tech rover Torrian Gray said.
Co-defensive coordinator Rod Sharpless scrounged around at antique shops and could not find an adequate lunch pail. Finally, a neighbor of his mother-in-law in New Jersey gave him one that had been in her basement for years.
``It looks like he found it in a trash pail,'' said Tech recruiting coordinator John Ballein, who sanded away some of the rust and painted the maroon-and-orange VT.
At the first meeting of the year, Tech's coaches unveiled the pail. They instructed the players to fill out their team and individual goals on orange 3-by-5 cards.
``We told them, `Once you're committed to the goals and to each other, we want you to come up and put these goals in the lunch box,' '' Foster said. ``We told them from the get-go that's what we're all about. If we ever lose sight of the fact that we're a hard-nosed, work-ethic type of defense, we're going to get our butts kicked.''
The Hokies (6-2, 4-1 Big East) have been doing the butt-kicking.
Tech ranks first nationally in rushing defense (76.9 yards per game), third in scoring defense (12.9 points per game), ninth in total defense (278.8 yards per game) and 18th in passing defense (101.9 rating). The Hokies lead the Big East in each category except passing defense, in which they are second. They also lead the league in quarterback sacks (4.1 per game) and third-down-conversion defense (.267).
Whenever Tech's defensive players backslide a bit, the coaches simply point to the lunch box as a reminder of what is expected of them.
Occasionally they do more than point.
``It was the Pittsburgh game, I believe, on the sidelines, and coach Foster was mad we weren't playing the way we should be playing - so he punched it,'' Tech defensive tackle J.C. Price said.
``I didn't think he hit it that hard, but he dented it pretty good. I don't think he packs that much punch; it's kind of an old lunch box.
``It definitely got everybody refocused, but after he walked away, we all giggled a little bit about him denting the lunch box.''
The lunch pail is a badge of honor. The coaches bequeath the task of toting it to practices, meetings and games each week to one player based on a point system for performance in the previous game.
Price practically owns the thing, having carted it around four or five weeks. One rainy day he forgot it on the practice field and had to run back out to get it.
He said he's never put any food in it, but did stow a T-shirt in the thing once.
If not Price, another lineman or a linebacker usually clutches the pail. Tech's defensive strength is up front.
The offensive players also have a symbol that depicts unity: one link of a chain. They call themselves the chain gang and have T-shirts that stress that they are strong when linked together.
But receiver Bryan Still said the offense does not take the links as seriously as the defense takes the lunch box.
``The first time I saw it, I was like `What in the world is that?' '' Still said.
Offensive guys just don't understand the working class. by CNB