ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611040016
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ANGIE WATTS STAFF WRITER
When Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer prepares his players for game day he lays down a few rules they all must follow: practice hard; respect your opponent; obey curfew; eat a proper pregame meal; and don't wear orange pants.
Orange pants?
That's right. After the Virginia Cavaliers trounced Tech 42-23 at home in 1994, a game in which the Hokies wore the infamous bright orange pants, the uniforms were banished.
"We just got our brains beat out every time we wore them," assistant head coach Billy Hite said. "And coach Beamer said, `No more.' I don't think we'll ever wear them again."
Superstitions. They have become as much a part of sports as tailgating and face-painted frenzied fans. They are so much the norm that many players and coaches didn't even realize they have them. But dig a little deeper and there's no doubt, superstitions abound.
Just ask junior tailback Marcus Parker.
"When we eat our pregame meal I have to have the same people sit with me at the table," Parker explained. "And Bryan Jennings has to sit next to me on my right. It's been different ways and we lost. This way we win."
The belief that Jennings' presence next to him for the pregame meal is fine this season, but what happens when Jennings, a senior tight end, graduates in May, leaving Parker behind for another year?
"I don't even want to think about it," Parker said.
Seating arrangements are just the beginning. Freshman place kicker Shayne Graham brought his holder from Pulaski County High, Caleb Hurd, with him to the team. Can you get more superstitious than that? Graham can. He not only drinks a quarter to a half bottle of Pepto Bismol before taking the field each Saturday, he and Hurd also clasp hands, butt heads and salute one another.
Think that's strange? Senior cornerback Antonio Banks lays out his uniform on the floor as if he were in it before he actually puts it on.
"The first away game at Akron this year I saw his uniform and then went and told him I had picked it up for him," said John Ballein, assistant to the head coach. "He said, `What!' But, of course, I hadn't really touched it."
Maybe that's because Ballein harbors a few superstitions of his own. He wears his baseball cap in the second half of a game - but not in the first, and always has to be the last person on the plane to an away game. And there's more.
Offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle skips the number 13 during Friday's practice when he counts down the play clock aloud so quarterback Jim Druckenmiller can get his timing down.
And no one on the coaching staff leaves the Saturday morning meetings until Bustle utters four little words.
"Coach Bustle says `It's a big one,'" Ballein said. "No matter who we're playing, we don't leave until he says that."
As much as the entire coaching staff has its own superstitions, so do the players. A piece of Hokie Stone hangs inside the tunnel the players emerge from onto Worsham Field that each player rubs on the way out.
The players on defense have become known for their faith in the lunch pail they carry to games to symbolize their hard-work ethic.
And who hasn't seen the "handshake" (that looks more like a dance) defensive end Cornell Brown and offensive tackle Jay Hagood do on the field before the start of each game while the rest of the team huddles together beside them.
Then there's offensive tackle T.J. Washington, who says he won't go to a game without his backpack. It's not the bag he's superstitious about, it's what's inside. Washington visits Carol Thomas' fourth-grade class at Gilbert Linkous Elementary School before each game, and receives about 20 homemade cards from the children he carries with him to every game.
Rover Pierson Prioleau wears his wristbands around his knees rather than his wrists; tailback Ken Oxendine leaves a piece of his clothing hanging outside his uniform; Druckenmiller follows the same routine left sock on before right sock; and tailback Aaron Layne must have not only his ankles taped, but his shoes taped by the trainers as well.
It's all a part of the game. Today, that means the focus is on Southwestern Louisiana.
As coach Bustle would say, "Let's play ball it's a big one."
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Brian Edmonds reaches up to touch theby CNBHokie Stone above the tunnel entrance to Lane Stadium-Worsham Field
before the start of a home game. color.