THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, December 4, 1995 TAG: 9512040119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines
Virginia Tech defensive tackle J.C. Price visited friends in New Orleans last summer, but he didn't go inside the Superdome.
``I didn't make it off Bourbon Street,'' Price said Sunday.
Price and the rest of the Hokies will see the inside of the Superdome Dec. 31 when they play Texas in the Sugar Bowl at 7 p.m. The selection was announced Sunday along with the other matchups in the Bowl Alliance - top-ranked Nebraska and vs. No. 2 Florida in the Fiesta Bowl and No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 8 Florida State in the Orange Bowl.
It will be the first appearance for Tech in a major bowl game. Texas has been to a slew of them, but last played in the Sugar Bowl in 1958.
The announcement on CBS was met with a hearty cheer by the Hokies players who gathered in the Jamerson Athletic Center Sunday to watch the selection show.
Even though Tech was guaranteed a spot in the Sugar or Orange bowls, it almost seemed as if hearing was believing for the upstart Hokies. Tech was the last team of the six selected, but it wasn't until Sugar Bowl executive director Troy Mathieu said, ``We are enthusiastic about having the Virginia Tech Hokies,'' that the players erupted in applause.
Immediately, Tech senior associate athletic director Sharon McCloskey began passing out Sugar Bowl lapel pins. Soon thereafter, Tech athletic director Dave Braine began passing out verbal bouquets.
``I just told (defensive end) Hank Coleman, `Who would have thought after your freshman year when you were 2-8-1 that you'd be playing in the Sugar Bowl your senior year?' '' Braine said. `` . . . A lot of big things have happened in our program the last few years, but none as big as what happened today.''
Braine said he expects the Hokies to bring about 25,000 fans to New Orleans. Their allotment is 15,000 tickets, but Mathieu said a heavy demand for tickets is a bowl game's favorite problem.
``We have a tremendous obligation and responsibility to our city to deliver the goods financially,'' Mathieu said. ``Virginia Tech will bring people to our city, and they will sell tickets. We don't have to go around our city and say, `Hey, will you buy these tickets? The school left them behind.' We'll have the opposite problem with Virginia Tech.''
Southwest Conference champion Texas, 10-1-1 and ranked No. 9 by The Associated Press and No. 6 by USA Today-CNN, should travel well also. The Longhorns' Austin campus is about an eight-hour drive from New Orleans.
Mathieu said the Sugar was debating between Texas and Florida State with its fourth pick following the Fiesta's first two selections and the Orange Bowl'schoice of Notre Dame. Contrary to reports that the Orange Bowl was intent on a Notre Dame-Florida State matchup and would not want a repeat of Notre Dame-Texas game played in September, Mathieu said his information was that the Orange would take Texas with the fifth pick if the Longhorns were available.
Two other factors: Florida State played in the Sugar Bowl last year, and if you add the two final regular season poll points together, Texas had 103 more points than the Seminoles.
``We were looking at Florida State-Virginia Tech or Texas-Virginia Tech the way the cards were dealt,'' Mathieu said. ``We felt clearly Texas-Virginia Tech was the best matchup we could get.''
The schools involved in Sunday's selection show made for heady company for the Hokies, who are 9-2 and rated 13th in the AP poll and 11th by USA Today-CNN.
The other five teams in the Bowl Alliance Conference Champions Pool have appeared in 133 bowl games combined in their storied histories. That's an average of almost 27 bowl trips per team, and none of the five has been to fewer than 20. Tech has been in eight bowls.
That, more than anything else, explains why most people believed Miami would represent the Big East as co-champion until it went on NCAA probation Friday.
``Once we got our foot in the door - and we do now in the big bowls - the best way we can make sure next time there's not even a discussion is for us to take a bunch of fans and for us to go down there and play a great football game,'' coach Frank Beamer said.
``And if we win, we'll be a top 10 football team.''
And then, Beamer can guarantee what he said at the end of the selection show: ``There's going to be a lot of happy Hokies down there on Bourbon Street.'' by CNB