ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 21, 1996 TAG: 9611210028
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: RANDY KING STAFF WRITER
OFFENSIVE LINEMEN T.J. and Todd Washington have 17th-ranked Virginia Tech living large and in charge.
Frankly, it should come as little surprise that brothers T.J. and Todd Washington have played such a big role for Virginia Tech's football team this season.
After all, big things have been happening around these two since Day One.
Just listen to Tony Washington, the boys' father and coach at Nandua High School on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
"I'll never forget the first night each was born,'' Tony recalled. "They both ate cereal because milk wasn't enough. We had to put cereal in their milk, or they'd stay hungry all the time.''
And they're still hungry, Big Daddy reports.
"When they come home now,'' said Tony Washington, "you know how the refrigerator will be loaded and you can't see the light?
"Well, when they leave, it's cleared out. You can see again, and you see nothing.''
Refrigerators, though, aren't the only things the Washington boys are clearing out these days. They make up 40 percent of a mammoth Tech offensive line that's been having opposing defenses for lunch most of the season.
T.J., a 6-foot-4, 313-pound senior, starts at right tackle. Little brother, Todd, a 6-3, 305-pound junior, starts at left guard.
Starting on the same line together is a feast the Washington boys haven't enjoyed since high school.
T.J., who is two years older than Todd, said: "It's been like a dream.''
It's been the answer to Tech's loss of guard Chris Malone and tackle Mike Bianchin off last season's 10-2 Sugar Bowl champions.
"T.J. has really concentrated on having a really good senior year and I think he has. And Todd just seems to get better and better and better,'' Tech coach Frank Beamer said.
"I'm telling you, there's only one word for those guys and their play. It's big.''
There's that word again B-I-G. It's no doubt the first word learned in the Washington family dictionary.
"I try to tell people that that's our family,'' Todd said. "We're just naturally big. My father has a niece who is 6-3 and she's the smallest in the family.''
Raised in tiny Melfa (pop. 428) on the Eastern Shore, the Washington boys never saw much but, well, other Washingtons.
"Honestly,'' said T.J., "I always thought that we were just normal. Because we were always around our family, and they're all big people.
``Then we get to high school, Tech and stuff, and we see all these small people, and we're saying to ourselves, `Something must be wrong with that person because there's nothing wrong with us.'''
While both boys weighed in the normal 7 1/2-pound range at birth, each soon sprouted up like a backyard dandelion.
"When we were both infants we were wearing toddler clothes,'' Todd said. "We both wore each other's clothes. We still do.''
When T.J. was 15, he wore a size-15 shoe. At the same time, 13-year-old Todd was keeping pace in a size-13.
About the only one around Melfa who cut the boys down to size was their father, Tony, who still tips the Toledos with the best of 'em.
"He's bigger than we are he's about 320,'' T.J. said.
"Naw, he's more than that,'' Todd replied.
"You just put down he's 320,'' T.J. ordered.
Tony, a former lineman at Johnson C. Smith, dished out a unique blend of discipline and family support that the boys still have on their menu to this day.
"I wish everybody got a chance to coach their sons,'' Tony said. "In a lot of cases, I had to revert from coach to father, then vice versa.
"I was pretty tough on them at times, yeah. When I'd leave in the mornings, I'd go in their room and say, `Fellas, I want you to know that Daddy loves you.' I'd give 'em a hug and when I got down the hall, I'd hear 'em say, `Yeah, we're going to catch the devil today,' and I'd say, `Yeah, you got it.'''
Father's iron rule and hard work ethic obviously rubbed off on the boys.
"We always had to do extra work,'' Todd said. "When practice was over, he'd tell us to run an extra mile with our gear on. He wouldn't accept us messing up on a football field, or anywhere else, for that matter.''
On many Saturdays at daybreak, while the rest of Melfa was still asleep, Tony would rustle the boys out of bed to go chop wood.
"What we didn't use for ourselves we'd load it up and take to senior citizens for no charge,'' Tony said. "Their Mom [Earline] and I always tried to get them to help other people.''
When the boys came out of high school, they had a lot of colleges asking for their help on a football field. Both ultimately chose Tech over Virginia.
"We never really planned on going to the same college,'' Todd said. "But went T.J. went to Tech, I knew the coaches were going to come after me, too. It just happened we ended up in the same place.''
Not only do the Washington boys play together, they live - and eat - together in a Blacksburg apartment.
"We have little spats sometime about who's going to wash the dishes, who's going to take out the trash,'' T.J. said.
"I'm the best cook, no doubt,'' Todd said emphatically.
The boys don't do much weekend cooking, though. Every Saturday, their parents, many times after driving all night after a Nandua High School game on Friday, show up with enough grub to feed a small army for weeks.
"For home games, Mom brings a bunch of food and the guys on the team all come over,'' T.J. said. "Our parents stay over to Sunday, watch the Frank Beamer show, and then they leave for home.''
Part of the boys goes with Tony and Earline Washington on each of those long six-hour drives back to the shore.
For Tony Washington, this fall has been a father's and a high school coach's dream with his two boys starting together on one of the nation's best college teams.
"Not many fathers can say that,'' Tony said.
"There's only one problem. It's hard to watch them because I need four eyes. On one play, I'll watch T.J., but I miss what Todd does. Then I watch Todd, but then what did T.J. do? That's why I have to go over that game tape two or three times when I get back home.''
Included, of course, are a few trips to the fridge.
"That's good, too,'' Tony said. "With those boys back in Blacksburg, I'll know there will be something in there left for me.''
LENGTH: Long : 121 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON\Staff. Brothers Todd (left), a seniorby CNBoffensive guard, and T.J. Washington, a junior offensive tackle,
together tip the scales at well over 600 pounds for Virginia Tech.
color.