ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The 963rd game in Virginia Tech's football history was like no other.
Then, the Nokia - or was that Hokiea? - Sugar Bowl also was like most of what had come before in Tech's 102nd season.
For the sixth time in a 10-2 season, Tech pitched a shutout in the second half. Coach Chuck Hartman's baseball team could use those kind of closers.
There were several points proven in the Hokies' 28-10 'Hornswaggling of Texas on Sunday night, but as usual for a Tech opponent, not many points were scored.
While the college football nation - that would be the World According to Lee Corso, right? - continued to learn just who the Hokies are, the winners learned a few things, too.
First, Texas quarterback James Brown, for all of his scrambled reputation, isn't as good as Syracuse freshman Donovan McNabb. And the Longhorns may have beaten Virginia on a long field goal in October, but the Hokies' state rival was the best team Tech played this season.
Texas came into the game averaging 433 yards per game. The Longhorns managed 226, and only 100 of those in the second half.
That was the only time during bowl week when Tech coach Frank Beamer wasn't saying the Hokies ``wanted to be where Texas is.''
``This is a team that plays better as the day goes along,'' Beamer said, sitting on more than his laurels in Tech's interview room of the Superdome. ``It says something about character.
``It says something about Coach [Mike] Gentry's strength program. If it was a one-time thing, it would be different. But it happens time after time. There's a certain maturity there, too.''
Perhaps the player who best personifies the first Tech team to reach 10 victories on the field in a season is defensive tackle J.C. Price.
Here's a guy who came to Tech from Dunkirk, Md., when the program was trying not to resemble a different Dunkirk. He did everything he could to flunk out, then he, like the Hokies, found themselves.
Price had a wonderful season, spent mostly on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage. He was an All-Big East Football Conference choice, a third-team All-America pick. He ranked in the top five nationally in tackles for losses.
He also played in the shadow of an underclassman and star, consensus first-team All-American Cornell Brown. Price wasn't the Hokies' MVP twice because Brown has been.
Yet, if Price was hurt by this misfortune - if that's not overstating it - he didn't let on. He just played. He did so relentlessly. He talked a good game, too. He was the Hokies' MVP.
That's ``Media Valued Perceptiveness.''
So, when the Sugar Bowl ended, Price, of course was carrying off a real trophy. No, not the Sugar Bowl silver cup. He was toting the ``Lunch Pail,'' the symbol of Tech's work ethic.
Beamer thinks somebody picked up the Sugar Bowl trophy, but he's not sure. ``I left that up to the seniors,'' he said.
``I think it might be in the back of an equipment truck, on the way back to Blacksburg,'' Tech athletic director Dave Braine said Monday.
And the lunch pail? It should be retired. It should sit in a trophy case when Tech's new $6 million football facility is completed, right next to the Sugar Bowl bowl.
One belongs with the other. They wouldn't have gotten one without the other.
In the post-bowl news conference early Monday morning, Beamer was asked if there would be a ticker-tape parade in Blacksburg for the team when it returned. Obviously, the questioner didn't know much about population density.
``If there is one,'' Beamer said, ``it wouldn't last long. Blacksburg is about as big as from here to the back of the room.''
Yes, but undoubtedly it swelled with pride Monday. That's because while the Hokies certainly aren't all business majors, they were businesslike all season.
They prospered as only they could - as a team. As the game began, it was easy to imagine the Hokies huddled on the sideline, sandlot-style, chanting:
``First quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter, French Quarter.''
As for the points these most often down-to-earth Hokies proved, there is one more.
To have a good time in New Orleans, you don't necessarily have to be on Bourbon Street.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. DON PETERSEN/Staff End Lawrence Lewis holds up theby CNBbattered lunch pail that has come to symbolize the Virginia Tech
defense.
2. ALAN KIM/Staff Tech defensive tackle J.C. Price holds the lunch
pail as he embraces rover Torrian Gray following the Sugar Bowl.
Kicker Atle Larsen looks on at the Louisiana Superdome.