ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512180049
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
BOTH PLAYERS start the year on different paths, but they both end on a high note.
The 1995 Division I football players of the year in Virginia came into the season on different career paths.
One was familiar with success, while the other was becoming increasingly unfamiliar with it.
For the second straight year, The Roanoke Times picked Virginia Tech junior defensive end Cornell Brown as the state's top defensive player.
It is just another accolade for the Hokies' much-decorated defender. By Christmas, his trophy case will include more brass than Tech's Marching Virginians.
Virginia tailback and Roanoke native Tiki Barber, a junior, was chosen the offensive player of the year. Barber has never appeared on the all-state college team, and until this season was a bit player in the Cavaliers' game plan.
That changed early in the 1995 season, actually in the nation's first game. In the Pigskin Classic on Aug.27 at Michigan, Barber burst onto the scene with an 81-yard touchdown run in the third quarter that put Virginia ahead 14-0. The Cavaliers lost the game 18-17, but Barber never lost his step.
``I feel like I showed the country what I was made of,'' Barber said. ``It was a great feeling. I'd been saying for a long time that I forgot what it was like to have a long run.''
Barber, an alumnus of Cave Spring High School, kept running longer and longer as the season wore on. In the Cavaliers' 11th game, at Maryland Nov.18, he broke Barry Word's UVa single-season rushing record of 1,224 yards.
With the Peach Bowl yet to be played, Barber has rushed for 1,397 yards and 14 touchdowns. The first team All-ACC pick also led his league with 1,696 all-purpose yards.
Barber also was selected to the GTE academic All-America team. He beat out last year's player of the year, VMI's Thomas Haskins, for the 1995 offensive nod. Haskins repeated as a first-team selection.
Barber is the first Roanoke native to win The Roanoke Times player of the year honors in any division. ``It's a great honor,'' he said. ``They won't forget about me back there.''
Tech's Brown, a Lynchburg native, had 103 tackles, 14 sacks and 11 other stops behind the line this season. His tackles for loss totaled 142 yards. The 14 sacks and 25 tackles for loss were the nation's third-best marks.
Brown's 1995 performance not only made him the top player in the state, but also earned him consensus All-America honors, the Hokies' first such honoree since center Jim Pyne in 1993.
Brown was the Big East Conference defensive player of the year and the national defensive player of the year according to Football News.
``I feel like I accomplished everything this year that I came in wanting to accomplish,'' Brown said.
Brown's toughest competition for state player of the year honors came from a man who plays on the same line, defensive tackle J.C. Price. Price was the Hokies' second-leading tackler (behind first-team linebacker George DelRicco) and finished the season with eight sacks and 23 tackles for a loss.
``Early on, J.C. had the big plays,'' said Tech defensive line coach Todd Grantham. ``I didn't think Cornell was the guy making the plays. As the season went along, the other teams were taking J.C. away, and then here comes Cornell, who's one-on-one. Anytime it's one-on-one for our guys, somebody's coming free.''
Like Brown, Aaron Sparrow of Norfolk State is repeating as a player-of-the-year pick on the Division II and III all-state team. A senior quarterback, he completed 238 of 409 passes (58.2 percent) for 3,434 yards and 32 touchdowns in 1995. He had five 400-yard passing games and finished his career in the top 10 all-time in Division II with 8,743 yards.
Sparrow wasn't the only member of Norfolk State's team who added his name to the record books. His top receiver, senior James Roe, finished his career with 4,468 yards receiving, the top mark of all-time in Division II and second all-time in all divisions to Jerry Rice. Roe set 14 NSU, 10 Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association and three NCAA records in his career.
Roe had 64 catches for 1,248 yards and 15 touchdowns in 1995.
Roe and Virginia punter Will Brice are the only three-time first-team selections on this year's squads.
Clinch Valley's Greg Thomas is out to prove that records can be shattered on the ground, too. The junior tailback had 1,300 yards rushing this season and currently rides a streak of 23 consecutive games with at least one touchdown. That ties the all-time college football record set in 1970 by Arkansas' Bill Burnett.
Washington and Lee's Robert Hull, the Generals' all-time sack leader and finalist for the Gagliardi Trophy for Division III's most outstanding player, is the Division II and III defensive player of the year. Hull, a defensive tackle, is the first W&L player to win state player of the year honors since the award was first given in 1987.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: MIKE HEFFNER/Staff. 1. Cave Spring alumnus Tiki Barber,by CNBa junior for UVa, ran his way to being the top offensive player in
Virginia this season. 2. Defensive end Cornell Brown of Virginia
Tech is the top defensive player in the state for the second year in
a row. color. Graphics: Charts. 1. All-Division I first team. 2.
All-Division II-III first team.