DATE: Friday, November 28, 1997             TAG: 9711280157

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM,STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                        LENGTH:   92 lines

HOKIES' CLARK COMES BY DETERMINATION HONESTLY: HE GOT IT FROM MOM

The odds were against Al Clark, an African-American male from a single-parent home growing up in one of Washington's toughest neighborhoods.

Not many of his neighbors graduated from high school, much less aspired to become a football star at Virginia Tech. Many died young.

``It was a real tough neighborhood, right in the heart of the city,'' Clark said. ``A lot of my friends didn't make it.''

Alfreda Clark wanted all five of her sons to make it, to find jobs, to have fulfilling lives. So she sent them all to Catholic school. How she paid for it, Al Clark doesn't know. She is a nursery school teacher with a limited income.

``My mom was pretty much struggling just to make it on her own,'' Clark said. ``She doesn't get a lot of help from my dad. She couldn't afford to send us to (Catholic) school. She just worked her heart out to do it. The schools worked with us, to stretch the tuition payments out, to make sure they were something she could afford.''

Somehow she managed, and Virginia Tech has been a beneficiary. Clark graduated from Archbishop Carroll, where the Washington Post named him its All-Metro quarterback, and starred for a season at Fork Union Military Academy.

He turned down offers from Maryland, Michigan State and Virginia to come to Blacksburg.

Now a junior, Clark enters the Hokies' final regular-season game at U.Va. on Saturday with solid if not spectacular statistics. He was called upon to fill the oversized shoes of Jim Druckenmiller, who led Tech to the Orange and Sugar bowls and was a first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers. And while nobody is claiming that Clark is a Druckenmiller, there's little doubt he's been an asset.

Clark has completed 98 of 165 passes for 1,289 yards and eight touchdowns. Remarkably, he's thrown only two interceptions, including one on a Hail Mary pass late in a game.

His arm is not as powerful as Druckenmiller's - ``Old Jim could throw a football through the crack of dawn,'' offensive coordinator Ricky Bustle said - but it is accurate at short range. Clark is 23rd nationally in passing efficiency.

He's also got speed and running savvy Druckenmiller wasn't blessed with. Despite being sacked 33 times - he doesn't have the veteran offensive line that protected Druckenmiller - Clark has rushed 86 times for 322 yards.

``Al's speed and his running ability are additional weapons he's brought to our offense,'' Bustle said. ``It's hard to say now many sacks he's avoided.''

Clark ran 81 yards for a touchdown at Rutgers. He led Tech to a stunning 31-3 victory over Syracuse. But his best game may have come in a 27-25 win over Miami two weeks ago, when he completed 10 of 12 passes for 153 yards, many on key third-down situations.

He's done it under duress. For three consecutive games he's been playing with torn cartilage in his left knee, the result of a late hit at West Virginia last month.

``The knee is about 80 percent,'' Clark said. ``It's reduced my speed. I was caught from behind last week at Pittsburgh. If I was healthy, that never would have happened.''

And he's been passing to receivers with little experience and not enough speed. Tech's top four wide receivers are hurt and either aren't playing or can't play at full speed.

``You always see injuries in football,'' Clark said. ``But I've never seen receivers go town like this, to see the first- and second-team receivers all hurt.

``I haven't worked with the (backup) receivers that much. It's their first time out there, and they can't read the defenses as fast. I don't know their timing as well. . . . It's made me concentrate on trying to throw the perfect pass.''

Bustle says Clark ``has done remarkably well under the circumstances. It's tough to step in and replace a No. 1 draft choice. The biggest thing I wanted him to do was to make good decisions. He's done that. Two interceptions, that says it all. He's played smart football.''

Clark says he's glad he came to Tech. He's been to three bowls, if you include his redshirt season, and will go to a fourth this season. He's on schedule to graduate in 1999 with a degree in nutrition.

But not all has been easy. Last January, his older brother died. Clark got the word while attending class.

``He'd gone to live with my dad, so I hadn't seen him much in recent years,'' Clark said. ``That was difficult, but it was really hard on my mom. It really hurt her.''

If there's been any solace for Alfreda Clark, it's been her son's first season as a starter at Tech.

``She sees every game she can,'' Clark said. ``She's really enjoyed watching me play this season. It's something she's been waiting for for a long time.''

Clark says the best is yet to come.

``Druck came in and lifted this program to heights it had never been to,'' Clark said. ``Then he gets drafted in the first round. That put a lot of pressure on me. But my goal was not to come in and stand out and be the man. I just wanted to come in and do a solid job and learn. I needed to learn to gain experience.

``Now I've got that. Next year, I go for it all.''

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