THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130160
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines
Only fun at stake when state's league champs meet. . .
With both Virginia and Virginia Tech coming into Saturday's annual confrontation with national rankings and conference titles in hand, some hypsters may tell you the game has never meant so much.
Actually, it may have never meant so little.
At one time, when Virginia Tech did not even have a conference title to play for and Virginia never had a chance to win the ACC title, the game meant considerably more to both schools.
Even so, the game never matched other intra-state rivalries, such as Florida-Florida State, Clemson-South Carolina, Alabama-Auburn, or Georgia-Georgia Tech.
It won't this week, either.
If Tech wins, it won't top beating Miami. If Virginia wins, it won't beat the thrill of beating Florida State or winning at Clemson.
This is not to say, however, that both teams and their fans won't be excited about the game. They will, and because of the quality of both teams, it will be well worth seeing.
But winning or losing isn't going to spoil either team's bowl party or take back either team's conference title. It's not life-or-death.
This one they can play just for the fun of it, and for the delight of the their fans.
That, more than anything else, makes this game special.
FRANK VEHORN
. . . but who could've predicted such success?
If someone had written in August that Virginia Tech would beat Miami, Virginia would beat Florida State and both would at least share their respective league titles it would have been written in crayon.
Sharp objects are not allowed in the place where that person would have resided.
Crazy as it sounds, that capital idea became reality Saturday as both the Hokies and Cavaliers clinched championships at games played inside the Beltway.
Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, after beating Temple at RFK Stadium, was asked how unlikely it would have seemed that the Commonwealth's two Division I-A teams would meet in November as conference titleholders.
``It doesn't sound improbable to me,'' Beamer said. ``It's kind of where football ought to be in the state of Virginia.''
Football in Virginia may have never been better.
They play Saturday in Charlottesville in a game that will be televised regionally by ABC. None of the previous 76 meetings have been broadcast by a major network.
For the Hokies, 8-2 and winners of eight straight, the last two weeks have been emotional ones. First they drubbed Syracuse to move into first place in the Big East. Then they clinched a share of the title - Syracuse or Miami can still tie for first - with the win over Temple.
``We've got eight straight right now, that's somewhat of an accomplishment,'' quarterback Jim Druckenmiller said. ``Why can't we make it nine straight? Or 10 straight? The season's not over yet.''
In Virginia's college football annals, a new season has just begun.
- STEVE CARLSON 7-4 are numbers Tribe will have to live with
For William and Mary, nothing less than a Yankee Conference title and trip to the Division I-AA playoffs was going to do this year.
And with 19 starters back from an 8-3 team, those seemed like reasonable goals.
Instead, the Tribe finished the season 7-4 Saturday, and was left with a sense of how a handful of plays can change the perception - not to mention the outcome - of an entire season.
William and Mary's players can recite them by rote: a momentum-changing punt block by James Madison; a couple of long runs by Massachusetts tailback Rene Ingoglia on a rain-slicked field.
There may be others but those were the big ones. The Tribe dominated James Madison for three quarters, but saw the tide turn after a blocked punt early in the fourth. The upset loss to unranked UMass was even more damaging.
If the Tribe had won those games, its other two losses - a season-opening defeat at I-A Virginia and a three-point road loss to fourth-ranked Delaware - likely wouldn't have been held against it.
Said coach Jimmye Laycock: ``Seven and four, with the schedule we played, and the way we played it, that's pretty good.''
For the Tribe, which started the season with great expectations, pretty good is going to have to be good enough.
ED MILLER by CNB