THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 64 lines
Just about every major college and professional sport has an exhibition season, featuring games that mean nothing in the standings or to fans, but a great deal to coaches and players preparing for a season.
The exception is college football. Coach Frank Beamer, preparing for No. 15 Virginia Tech's season opener Saturday at Akron, said Monday college football teams should be allowed to play an exhibition game. Beamer said a couple of schools that are geographically close could get together to help each other iron out the kinks.
``You could probably make money for both teams,'' Beamer said. ``Just having a game-type exhibition or scrimmage would make sense. It's just kind of tough that the first time you play, you're keeping score for real.''
Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni agreed. He said the ninth-ranked Orangemen are at a disadvantage Saturday, having to open their season against No. 24 North Carolina, which is coming off a 45-0 win over Clemson.
``I'd have loved to have played an exhibition game,'' Pasqualoni said.
West Virginia linebacker Canute Curtis, the Big East defensive player of the week, said an exhibition would be a nice break from the fall camp grind.
``It's always nice to play someone else, you get tired of playing each other,'' Curtis said.
Alas, Beamer said he doesn't have any reason to believe it will happen anytime soon.
GREEN GONE: Virginia Tech announced Saturday three-year starting cornerback Larry Green has been sidelined for the season by academic problems and will not be in school this season. Beamer would not specify what the nature of the academic problems were, but said the decision came so late because of an appeal process.
``(Green) was playing with a lot of confidence and made a lot of plays downfield,'' Beamer said. ``When you're inexperienced in the secondary, things can happen back there to you real quickly. It's a significant loss.''
Sophomore Loren Johnson, who started nine games last year, takes over for Green while the other corner is senior Antonio Banks, who started as a freshman and sophomore and was a reserve during an injury-plagued junior season.
Where the loss of Green hurts most is in terms of depth. Beamer said true freshman Anthony Midget is the top backup at both corner spots.
MIAMI VICE: Miami coach Butch Davis said 13 Hurricanes missed the season-opening win over Memphis because of injury or suspension. ``We hope to get all of those players back in the very near future,'' Davis said.
Linebacker James Burgess will return from a one-game suspension for his part in an attack on a member of the track team who said receiver Jammi German was gay. Davis said running back Danyell Ferguson and receiver Yatil Green are likely to miss one more game under an NCAA suspension for receiving the special benefit of use of a limousine provided by an agent.
THE PITTS: After getting drubbed by West Virginia Saturday night at home, Pittsburgh coach Johnny Majors made his players put on the pads Sunday and scrimmage for about 20 minutes. Majors said he had never done that before, but needed to do something to get his players' attention after a 34-0 debacle.
``We were completely whipped in every phase of the game,'' Majors said. ``It was no contest. We were so sorry. It was abysmal to endure that Saturday night.''
GET SERIOUS: Even for professional poor-mouther Don Nehlen of West Virginia, this one seems to be a stretch: ``Most of the Mid-American Conference schools have better facilities than the schools in the Big East.'' Nehlen's Mountaineers play Western Michigan Saturday from, of course, the Mid-American Conference. by CNB