Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993 TAG: 9312310052
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SHREVEPORT, LA. LENGTH: Long
At least one of Shreveport's offspring can't understand it. Terry Bradshaw, a Louisiana Tech graduate who grew up here and went on to win four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers, appeared briefly at the bowl's pre-game news conference Thursday morning.
The city lost its World Football League team in the mid-1970s, and there is talk the 18-year-old Independence Bowl has an uncertain future. Bradshaw, a CBS football studio analyst, was asked about the lack of Shreveport's support.
"I can't imagine," he said. "Maybe they want Notre Dame-LSU. The black cloud over Shreveport has always been they won't support anything.
"I always thought this bowl did well. I don't understand it. The Independence Bowl is a great bowl . . . This bowl has survived for many, many years in the city of Shreveport. The Houston bowl [the Bluebonnet] fell flat on its face.
"My God, what else are we going to lose? What do you do when you cross the [Red River] bridge, turn around and go back over it again? The city ought to wake up and see they've got a pretty good thing going here."
\ PARTYING: Players from Indiana and Virginia Tech apparently have gotten along well this week.
On Tuesday, Tech linebacker DeWayne Knight said, a bus full of Hokies pulled up at a local nightclub about the same time a Hoosiers bus pulled up.
"We didn't think it looked like a place where we wanted to hang out," said Knight, who said the Hoosiers made the same decision. "So they got on our bus and we went to another place. I don't think there are any egos involved. I saw some guys shooting pool together last night."
Tech's coaching staff gave the Hokies some freedom during the trip. Tech's curfew on Monday and Tuesday nights was 2:30 the following morning. On Wednesday, the curfew tightened to 12:30 the following morning. Thursday's curfew was 11 p.m.
\ ON BOWLS: Tech's Frank Beamer and Indiana's Bill Mallory each was asked if he favored the bowl coalition. Beamer does.
Said Mallory: "The coalition is a big joke. . . . You can take the coalition and do whatever you want with it."
\ THE MISSING: Several Hokies defenders were asked this week to what extent they were motivated to win for P.J. Preston and Stacy Henley, two prominent defensive players who aren't with the team in Shreveport.
Preston left unhappily in mid-season after he tried to return from an illness that prevented him from playing; Henley went from starting rover to third-stringer in the space of one week and was left home when Tech traveled here.
"Not actually," said redshirt freshman rover Torrian Gray, who took over Henley's spot. "You go out there, you've got to be thinking [about] the game."
Fifth-year senior DeWayne Knight had a different response.
"I think it's important to keep those guys in mind," he said. "Motivation? It's not like they're dead or anything. They're friends, they're our brothers. They're part of our football family. They won't be forgotten."
\ BAD MEMORY: The last time Indiana defensive end Lamar Mills played in a bowl game - the 1991 Copper Bowl - he returned home to party in Detroit and was robbed at gunpoint and shot.
A bullet went through his right ring finger and lodged in his shoulder but caused no permanent damage. He did, however, lose his Copper Bowl watch. Because Indiana has reached Shreveport, he finally has a replacement.
\ LITTLE LOBSTERS: Crawfish are available here boiled, fried, in etoufee, soup, gumbo and just about any other way you can think of. No preparation, however, suits some of the skeptics on Tech's and Indiana's football teams.
Tech center Jim Pyne, from seafood-happy Massachusetts, smirked and said the Cajun delicacy looked like "little lobsters."
Said teammate John Burke, a New Jersey native: "It looks good, but I think I'll stick to steak on this trip."
Indiana offensive lineman Todd Smith, who weighs 285 pounds, apparently didn't discriminate.
"I'm a steak man myself," Smith said. "[But] you name it, we ate it."
Except one other Cajun specialty.
"No, I haven't had any alligator, but if anybody wants to take me out after this, that's fine with me," Smith said.
\ QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Indiana quarterback John Paci was asked if, at 8-3, the Hoosiers felt they deserved to be in a "better bowl" than the Independence. He smiled and shook his head slowly.
"You want to stop the pens?" he asked. "What do you want me to say?"
\ ETC: Independence Bowl chairman Mike McCarthy said Thursday the Shreveport-area television blackout has been lifted, even though the game will not come close to selling out. . . . Indiana won a small battle with Tech on Thursday. At the pre-bowl news conference, an Indiana helmet sat on the podium. Tech's side of the lectern was helmetless. . . . This is Bill Mallory's seventh different bowl as a head coach. Two of those games are extinct: The Bluebonnet and All-American bowls. Mallory has coached in the Orange, Peach, Liberty, Copper and now the Independence. . . . The Big Ten has not had a winning record in bowl games since 1987. This year, Michigan State has lost to Louisville in the Liberty Bowl and Ohio State played Brigham Young Thursday night in the Holiday Bowl. . . . If Tommy Edwards scores a touchdown for Tech today, he and his father, Kenny, will be the only father-son duo to have scored bowl-game touchdowns for Tech. Kenny did it in the 1968 Liberty Bowl. . . . Bowl-game statistics do not count when figuring team or individual season or single-game records . . . Tech and Indiana tied for 14th nationally in turnover margin (plus-0.82 per game).
by CNB