THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609070439
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 62 lines
Virginia Tech's basketball team, which recently returned from a trip to Europe, will open its season in Hawaii. The women's team also will take a trip to the islands in December.
The football team? It opens tonight in Akron, the self-described ``Rubber Capital of the World.''
``What's wrong with this picture?'' assistant head coach Billy Hite said.
Plenty. Mid-American Conference teams routinely serve as early season fodder for schools from major conferences.
But those games invariably take place on the major schools' home turf. Tech, ranked No. 15 by The Associated Press, rolls into Akron's Rubber Bowl tonight at 7.
``Not too many big teams come in here,'' MAC assistant commissioner Tom Lessig said after searching for the last time a ranked opponent visited a MAC school. ``I don't see a team that would have been ranked. It hasn't happened in 20 years, it's safe to say that.''
So how come Virginia Tech, coming off a win in the Sugar Bowl, has to stoop to a game in the Rubber Bowl? Akron coach Lee Owens hit it on the head when he said, ``I'm sure Virginia Tech wasn't as successful when this thing was signed as they are today.''
Virginia Tech athletic director Dave Braine signed the contract to play Akron in June 1988. The Hokies were coming off a 2-9 season and were muddling along as a Division I-A independent.
Akron, which moved from I-AA to I-A in 1987, agreed to play four games in Blacksburg - there will be one more visit by the Zips, tentatively set for 2000 - with only one return required by the Hokies.
``They had just hired Gerry Faust and they were going big-time, and we were an independent and had a hard time getting anyone to schedule us, especially for home games,'' Braine said.
Braine said Akron will pay Tech a guarantee of $100,000, less than what Braine said was the standard guarantee of $125,000 at the time the contract was signed.
The first words on Akron's football press release this week read ``Nationally ranked Hokies best opponent ever to play at Bowl.''
``I understand it's the biggest game they've had there in a number of years,'' Tech coach Frank Beamer said.
That doesn't mean it will be a good one. Tech beat the Zips 77-27 last year in Blacksburg, setting 15 school, stadium and conference records.
So is Akron, which opened the season last week with a 44-14 loss to Ohio University, better this year?
``I don't think so,'' Hite said. ``To me, in that opening ballgame they didn't look any better. I'm not real excited about going to play at Akron, Ohio, and playing in the Rubber Bowl.''
The saving grace for Tech is that it's the season opener. Lining up across from someone wearing colors other than the Hokies' is a relief for the players.
``It doesn't matter, everyone wants to play,'' defensive end Cornell Brown said. ``We could go anywhere.''
Freshman Shyrone Stith out of Chesapeake's Western Branch High said the Hokies didn't lure him to Blacksburg with the promise of playing in the Rubber Bowl. But he's excited nonetheless, because as a backup tailback he's been told there's a chance he could tote the ball upward of 20 times tonight.
``The guys here want to beat them badder than last year,'' Stith said. ``We know they're not a good team, but we're not going to ease up on them.'' by CNB