Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 5, 1995 TAG: 9510050038
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Long
As the ``old man'' of the Virginia Tech football team, Chris Malone figures he has a license to do whatever is required to keep his boys in line.
``Everybody on the team calls me `Dad' because I'm so damned old,'' said Malone, who turned 24 in June.
``Yeah, I feel like I'm a father figure to some guys. I see things sometime and I'll say, `What are you doing that for?' I snap at 'em every once in a while just to try to keep 'em in line, and they know it, too.''
When Tech lost its first two games this season, Malone let 'em know it, all right. ``Big Daddy'' - the left guard goes 6 feet 3, 285 pounds - paddled the team in print, accusing some players of becoming fat and happy.
``I'm famous for saying what I think, and that's what I thought at the time,'' Malone said.
``Well, I've been 2-8-1 [in 1992] and I don't want to go back. We have a lot of young people playing and they've never had to go through that.
``They see us going to bowls, so they commit and think they're going to bowls. Then, all of a sudden, they're put in a situation where they've got to perform ... do it well every week and they weren't doing it.
``I guess they thought it was just going to happen. Well, this isn't Notre Dame.''
Apparently, Malone's message was delivered. A riled-up Tech team upset 17th-ranked Miami 13-7 on Sept.23, then stormed back to a 26-16 victory Saturday at Pitt.
``I think Miami was our wakeup call, our season,'' Malone said. ``If we'd lost that game, we'd probably be in the tank right now.''
Which is right where many thought Malone's football career would be after he graduated from Brunswick Academy, a small private school in Lawrenceville.
``I only weighed 215 at the time, but I was the big dog there,'' said Malone, a three-time all-league pick on offense and defense in high school.
Malone quickly discovered Brunswick is not exactly a regular stop on the college recruiters' trail.
``Nobody thought I could play,'' Malone said. ``People said I hadn't played anybody, which was true.''
In hopes of proving himself, Malone elected to attend prep school for a year, going to Fork Union Military Academy, a longtime Tech pipeline in football and basketball.
Malone finally got noticed one fall afternoon in 1990, when Fork Union was playing a game in Blacksburg against the Tech junior varsity.
``Steve Marshall [a former Tech assistant coach] recruited Fork Union, so he was there looking at guys as they got off the bus,'' Malone said. ``I had known Marshall. He had taken a liking to me because I worked hard when I attended a couple of Tech's summer camps.
``I got off that bus, he grabbed me by the shoulder and said, `What ... are you doing here?' I said, `Coach, I had nowhere else to go. It was either this or pump gas.'''
The next fall, Malone was pumping iron at Tech.
Malone wanted to play defense, but Marshall had the new kid ticketed for his offensive line.
``I was about 260 [pounds] my first year here, and that's really small,'' Malone said. ``When I got here, I ate whole pizzas every night at midnight to gain weight. It was bad weight, but once I got it on I figured I could turn it into good weight in the weight room.''
After being redshirted as a freshman in 1991, Malone opened '92 as the Hokies' starter at the split guard position. The Emporia native was humbled early. The turning point of Malone's Hokie career came in his fourth game, when he lined up against Rich Dolly, a fifth-year senior at West Virginia.
On Tech's first series, Malone found ``Hello, Dolly'' to be one tough tune to play.
``When the guy came up to the line of scrimmage he started talking trash,'' Malone said. ``He looked at me and said, `I know you're a freshman.' I came off the line for the first play and I felt like I had hit a fire hydrant. And after that, I was done.
``I was a freshman starting and I had a big head. That popped it right there.
``I realized that day it was time for me to get a little more serious about it and get a little stronger. I've have had some bad days since, but I've never been physically abused like that ever again.''
Obviously. Malone will make his 40th consecutive start for the Hokies on Saturday at Navy.
``I don't look at the streak as being that big a deal,'' Malone said. ``All it really means is that I've been here a long time. Shoot, most of my friends, the guys I played with a lot, are gone from here.''
But the ``old man'' still rides in Blacksburg. Malone is counting on punctuating his Hokies career with a third consecutive trip to a bowl game.
``I've done some things here that I never thought I'd do,'' Malone said. ``When we were 2-8-1, if somebody had told me we'd go to two, perhaps three, bowls, I'd have told 'em they were crazy.''
Just as some of the younger Hokies may think of ``Dad.''
``You've got to remember,'' Malone said, ``I've been around a long time and I've seen a lot of things happen. I'm just trying to help 'em all out, keep 'em out of trouble.''
As they say, father knows best.
by CNB