Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509120030
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LEXINGTON LENGTH: Medium
No, it wasn't an intrasquad scrimmage by Bart Bellairs' running-and-gunning basketball team. It was a first-time intrastate date that football coach Bill Stewart wishes would become a rivalry.
The Keydets beat Liberty, 50-31. Really. There has been some question whether the VMI side of the Alumni Memorial Stadium scoreboard would count that high.
VMI was supposed to be playing at Vanderbilt, but the Commodores decided they didn't want to play a Division I-AA foe after all, and paid $25,000 to void the contract.
The Flames wanted to play another in-state opponent so badly, they visited without a guarantee. What they did was play bad, period. They couldn't catch kickoffs or VMI running star Thomas Haskins, who now has more 100-yard rushing games (10) than anyone in VMI history except Floyd Allen.
Now, there's a reminder of better times.
VMI was coming off consecutive one-win seasons and an opening 51-28 wreck at Richmond. The matchup with LU figured to be one team trying to get into the end zone to pray against one praying to keep the other out of the end zone.
What occurred was perhaps the most emotional day at Alumni Memorial in almost a decade, since the Keydets kept rallying to beat William and Mary 39-38 in October 1985.
VMI hadn't scored so much against an opponent from a common NCAA division since beating Davidson 55-0 in 1975. There was no I-AA then. And the Keydets had lost nine games in succession to state I-AA foes, by an average of 22 points.
By the end of the game, Stewart was running down the sideline, hoarsely screaming, and imploring VMI Superintendent Josiah Bunting for a one-day amnesty for cadets on restrictions and Rat-Line relief.
``Please, sir!'' the second year coach rasped politely.
Stewart got the liberty he wanted there, too.
He didn't have to plead with his team after halftime, when it was 21-21, and as freshman safety David Budlong later explained, ``Everybody was playing well except the kickoff team.''
Stewart had done his part. Four times the Keydets faced fourth-and-short. Four times Stewart kept his offense on the field. Four times they converted for first downs.
A fake punt on another fourth became another first down. And three of those five gambles later turned into touchdowns.
Maybe Stewart should have bought a lottery ticket Saturday night, too, but in a situation where losing has become the norm, he really had nothing to lose.
``If it hadn't worked, I'd have been booed out of the stadium,'' Stewart said.
And if he doesn't try, he's not giving his team an opportunity to win. When your program is 1-11, things can't go backward any further. What Stewart did, as much as anything, is set an example.
That's important if VMI ever again is to have a modicum of football success. Stewart's program did a better retention job of personnel last year than his recent predecessors.
The Keydets in the headlines may be upperclassmen, but the two-deep is littered with rats of current and recent arrival. Seventeen of the 22 on the defensive side are sophomores and freshmen.
Timmy Williams is playing both ways for the Keydets. However, this isn't Bath County High. That's how thin VMI is in the secondary. It's not much better at other positions.
That's why invited walk-ons like Budlong have a place in VMI's perennial rebuilding situation. Even Rats can be heroes, at least for a day.
A backup safety, Budlong never played a down from scrimmage. It was his fumble recovery on a VMI squib kickoff that led to the Keydets' go-ahead touchdown.
Sagely ignoring the advice of some teammates, Budlong fell on the ball at the Flames' 11. Five plays later, the Keydets had erased LU's 31-29 lead.
``People were screaming at me to pick up the ball and run,'' the burr-headed freshman said. ``I just wanted to fall on it. Hey, it was an exciting time.''
There hasn't been many of those in VMI football. And to think that the Keydets could have been in Nashville picking up a check for $150,000.
Vandy did the Keydets a favor. The program was more enriched by staying home. You can't buy the kind of emotion and success VMI warmed itself with against the Flames.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB