Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1995 TAG: 9509200033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
There is no greater motivator for the football-playing Barber brothers of Roanoke than the fear of becoming known as ``the other Barber.''
That's what running back Tiki Barber was beginning to experience at the end of the 1994 season and he wasn't wild about it.
``I know I was'' the other Barber, said Tiki, whose brother, Ronde, plays cornerback for Virginia. ``People would go into interviews and ask about him. Nobody wanted to know what I was up to, or what was going on with me.
``It wasn't anything I could complain about. I hadn't done anything to get the attention. I just took it upon myself to make my own name.''
Barber wasn't looking to upstage his brother, who was named third-team All-America and ACC rookie of the year, but he had reached the midway point of his college career and didn't have a great deal to show for it.
``I don't know if it was the fact I hadn't been given the opportunity or if I just hadn't been producing,'' Barber said, ``but I felt it was time for me to do something. I wouldn't say it had been disappointing. I just hadn't lived up to my expectations.''
Barber rushed for 591 yards last year as a sophomore, but had not made the kind of impact many predicted when he left Cave Spring High School. For one thing, he could not avoid injuries, including the broken shoulder blade that caused him to miss the 11th game of the '94 season.
It was easy to look at his trackman's physique (5-foot-10, 180 pounds) and wonder if Barber was built to withstand the punishment that comes from running inside. It was a question that UVa assistant coach Ken Mack was asking as well.
``Toward the end of the school year, Coach Mack sat me down and said he was going to need me this year and that I was going to have to put on weight to protect myself from injuries,'' Barber said. ``I started to realize that I was going to be a key figure in our offense this year.''
Barber added 15 pounds and quickly discovered he was bouncing off tacklers who previously would overwhelm him.
``Last year, I was a little too fragile,'' he said. ``I didn't have any confidence running inside. I forced myself to do it. I was really small and I could tell I was afraid to push the ball inside, like I was expecting to get tackled.''
It's no wonder the Cavaliers shied away from Barber in short-yardage situations. He scored three touchdowns in his first two seasons, which is one fewer than he had Saturday in UVa's 41-14 victory over Georgia Tech.
Barber originally was credited with 17 carries for 105 yards, although a review of the play-by-play shows him with 20 carries for 119 yards. It was the third time in the Cavaliers' first four games he rushed for 100 yards or more.
He couldn't have come any closer in the other game, a 99-yard effort against William and Mary.
``Tell me about it!'' Barber said. ``Coach Mack drilled that into me because I had one play where I tried to reverse field and lost 6 yards. He was like, `There it is; there it is.'''
Barber, once nationally ranked in the long jump and triple jump, has retained his sprinter's speed and in the spring set a football-team record by running 40 yards in 4.28 seconds. But, he doesn't know if he has much of a future in track and field.
``I don't think so,'' he said. ``When I ran track, my weight dropped. The lowest it got was 175. I realized there was no way I could play college football at 175 pounds, especially in the kind of offense we have here.
``I don't think I'll ever be capable of dominating the way I did in high school, mostly because of the weight I've put on. Also, my mentality is more geared toward football nowadays.''
It was Barber's goal before the season to rush for 1,000 yards, a figure he would reach by rushing for an average of 68 yards in his remaining eight games.
``I was talking with Kevin [Brooks] and Ronde, and Kevin was like, `If you keep averaging [115] yards per game, you'll break the single-season school rushing record,''' Barber said. ``So, I went and looked it up. It's 1,200-something by [Terry] Kirby.''
Barber couldn't have looked that closely, because the record belongs to Barry Word, who rushed for 1,224 yards in 1985. In any case, Barber has a chance to put himself in some select company.
``He could be a big-league back,'' Welsh said. ``He's never broken tackles like he has in some of the games and the preseason. And, his vision is better. He's not dancing around so much. He's making one cut and going. That's what it takes.
``He's going north and south. He used to go east and west.''
Barber's ``dancing'' and his occasional problems with fumbling kept him from gaining Welsh's full endorsement until this year.
``My first two years, he was really tough on me,'' Barber said. ``I kept asking myself, `Why does he hate me?' It shocked me, after my [28-yard] punt return [at Michigan], when he said, `Good job.' Looking back at it, I can see he was just trying to make me a better player.''
Tiki said he does not foresee the day when Welsh gives him a hug, as he did Ronde after an interception and return in UVa's 9-6 victory over Clemson last year.
``I haven't reached Ronde's status yet,'' Tiki said. ``We're always teasing him about how much George loves him.''
Besides, Ronde gets all the criticism he could ever want from Tiki, who Saturday shouted at his brother after he slipped and was beaten for a Georgia Tech touchdown pass.
``I was pretty hot at him for that because it was a play he should have made,'' Tiki said. ``I told him he was getting a little lax and should pick it up.''
But, don't anybody else try to say something.
``That's just the way siblings are,'' Tiki said. ``I don't think there is a line. I can go as far as I want and it's not going to affect our relationship. But, when the [opposing] fans got on him at the N.C. State game, it totally offended me. I felt they were yelling at me and not him.''
At times like that, there is no ``other'' Barber.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL
by CNB