DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160438

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C4   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: ED MILLER

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

FOOTBALL REPORT

Beamer impressed by the progress Temple has made

Calling this the best Temple team in Big East football history is really not much of a compliment. The Owls, after all, were 1-38 in conference games heading into this season.

But after an upset win over Boston College Sept. 6, Temple (1-2, 1-0 Big East) is at least temporarily ahead of Syracuse, BC and West Virginia in the conference standings. And last Saturday, the Owls gave mighty Penn State a hard time - for a half, anyway.

Baby steps, to be sure. But enough for Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer to pronounce these Owls - who host the Hokies Saturday - the best he's seen in seven years in the conference.

``I've seen improvement every year,'' Beamer said. ``The caliber of players they have has improved. They've become a better football team. It just doesn't happen overnight.''

Beamer knows. He recalled 1992, when Tech went 2-8-1, 1-4 in the conference. Tech has been to four straight bowl games since.

``It's a real fine line between struggling and then getting a win or two and then all of a sudden we're off to the races,'' he said.

Temple's not off to the races yet, but the Owls have shown signs of at least getting in the race, coach Ron Dickerson said.

``We started out like gangbusters against Penn State,'' he said. ``I think we made `em mad. We played with them for a half, that's a first since we've been here.''

Tech's punter captures player-of-week honors

The unsung hero of Tech's 31-3 win over Syracuse Saturday was punter Jimmy Kibble, who averaged 42.7 yards on six punts and placed five inside the Syracuse 15. Kibble also kicked off, and sent three balls into the end zone for touchbacks. The performance earned him Big East Special Teams Player of the Week honors.

``It was a field position game,'' Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni said. ``It seemed like every time we had the ball, it was in the back of the field.''

Kibble, a sophomore, was seventh in the conference in punting last year, and had two blocked in the season opener against Rutgers. He worked on shortening his approach to two steps against Syracuse.

Chesapeake's Foreman is catching on at W.Va.

A lack of depth at wide receiver has been good news for West Virginia's Shawn Foreman, a Chesapeake native who has been the focus of the Mountaineers' passing game.

Quarterback Marc Bulger completed 17 passes in Saturday's 31-24 loss to Boston College, and 10 of them went to Foreman, for 153 yards. The junior from Indian River leads the conference in receptions with 21 in three games.

West Virginia coach Don Nehlen said he's pleased with Foreman. He just wishes some other receivers would step forward.

Backup fills in nicely for injured BC player

The status of Boston College running back Omari Walker, who sprained a knee Saturday, won't be known until today, coach Tom O'Brien said. The Eagles didn't seem to miss their all-conference tailback. Backup Mike Cloud ran for 211 yards - 209 in the second half - in the win over West Virginia. Cloud was named the conference's offensive player of the week. . . .

Syracuse fullback Rob Konrad, out with cracked ribs, probably won't return until Oct. 4 vs. East Carolina. Syracuse didn't use a fullback much against Virginia Tech, a big factor in the loss, Pasqualoni said. . . . .

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu