THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 30, 1996 TAG: 9609300155
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Bob Molinaro
LENGTH: 66 lines
``It's too late,'' George Welsh was saying a few minutes past 11 Saturday night. ``It's too late to answer that.''
The final curtain of rain had just come down on Virginia's 37-13 Late Show victory over Texas, when Welsh emerged from the wings to take a few awkward bows.
What, somebody wanted to know, does a 4-0 start mean for U.Va.?
``Why get too excited about it,'' said Welsh, who has never met a victory he couldn't underplay.
``It's only four and oh,'' he shrugged. ``We've got seven to go.''
Welsh then spent the next couple minutes casually deflecting praise for his team's prime-time roping of the 13th-ranked Longhorns, who just last week lost by a field goal to Notre Dame.
``I don't think we had a great outing tonight,'' he said with a straight face.
``They helped us,'' he said. ``They dropped the ball too much and threw interceptions. We had everything go our way and they had nothing go their way. That was the essence of it well into the second quarter.''
Veteran Welsh watchers understood this for what it was: Prime-time George.
When the curtain dropped, he emerged backstage like a sweat-shirted, mat-haired, slightly dyspeptic Alistair Cooke intent upon convincing his audience that the episode of Masterpiece Theater it had just watched was overrated, anything but a classic . . . nothing to get excited about.
Meanwhile, on the second floor of the building that houses the locker rooms at Scott Stadium, some were putting a different spin on U.Va.'s performance.
``How bad,'' a reporter from Texas asked Longhorn wide receiver Curtis Jackson, ``would Virginia beat Notre Dame?''
This is called making an impression.
About the same time, ESPN radio was on the phone, asking for a live interview with Tiki Barber.
The U.Va. tailback had rushed for 121 yards, and his three touchdown runs in the first half - 16, 26 and 12 yards - would keep ESPN in highlights at least until Sunday afternoon.
``I just looked at Texas like another team,'' Barber, still dressed in soggy uniform pants and T-shirt, said before taking ESPN's call. ``A team in a high position that we can take down.''
His touchdown runs?
``You have to make big plays in big games,'' he said. ``I'm always telling the guys up front, if they can get me through the line, I can do the rest.''
A few feet away, senior quarterback Tim Sherman, coming off his most impressive game, said, ``I felt we had a good chance of winning, but not like this.''
He meant not with such ease.
Not by jumping out to a 24-0 lead.
``Virginia is a damn good team,'' Texas coach John Mackovic said. ``But I know we're not that bad.''
So then, with a 4-0 record to build on, how far can U.Va. go?
``I don't know,'' said Welsh, sounding tired and bemused. ``It's too late to be thinking about that stuff. It's 11 o'clock and I've been up since five.''
In a few minutes, Barber would be on the line to ESPN. ``I guess,'' he would say into the phone, ``everything worked for us today.''
Welsh, noting the excitement created by the victory, had already discovered something to worry about.
Nodding in the direction of his players, he said, ``Everybody's going to tell them how good they are now.''
Probably not everybody. by CNB