THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 12, 1996 TAG: 9609120541
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Tom Robinson
LENGTH: 67 lines
Virginia Military Institute is clearing the barracks and busing nearly the entire corps of cadets to William and Mary on Saturday - some 1,100 males, no ladies yet, amassing in dress uniforms of gray and white.
Does this mean war?
Not literally. Considering, however, that VMI hasn't shipped the student body to an away football game for 25 years, it hints that something different is in the Lexington air.
For a change, it might not be rancid.
Of course, VMI and rotten football go way, way back. The Keydets have won more than they've lost in just four seasons since 1967, the last time in 1981. And during back-to-back 1-10 seasons in '93 and '94, it seemed VMI's only escape from misery would be a drop from Division I-AA to non-scholarship Division III, a painful but realistic admission that its competitive football days were done.
If ever a school was in over its head, VMI appeared at least up to its ears.
Evidence suggests this isn't the case anymore, that VMI can actually play I-AA football without children pointing and laughing. Last year's record, for instance, was 4-7, shy of mediocre but certainly a long, cool drink for the haggard troops.
A year later, mild success is the least of VMI's goals. One game - a 31-7 loss to Mississippi - into his third year at VMI, coach Bill Stewart has his '96 standards up on the locker room wall:
One, naturally, beat The Citadel. Two, take back Virginia. That is, beat I-AA rivals William and Mary and Richmond, which VMI hasn't done in the same season since 1980. Three, play after Turkey Day - that's what it says, Turkey Day - which means VMI would make the NCAA playoffs.
Accepting the latter as pure fantasy, are the first two doable? Well, the Keydets believe. And before you achieve, don't you first have to truly believe?
``The team before just wanted to go out and make it a game. We don't want to just make it a game,'' said junior defensive end Matt Coley of Virginia Beach, who played at Princess Anne. ``Coach Stewart has weeded out all those who were bringing the program down. Who didn't believe in themselves, in the team and the corps.''
Coley redshirted the '93 1-10 debacle, the last of coach Jim Shuck's five seasons and 14-40-1 legacy. Since Stewart arrived from his assistant's job at Air Force and stressed weight training, Coley is one of the largest, literally, beneficiaries.
Lifting has turned Coley from a 6-foot-4, 220-pound freshman to a 6-5, 265 weight nut who won VMI's award for hoisting the most in tests last year. On the field, Coley also led the Keydets in sacks (five) and fumbles caused (four).
``People used to just go to practice, try to make it through the week and go play,'' Coley said. ``It's so much more understandable now what practices have to be like to beat our opponent. It's two different worlds.''
In ancient times, the corps always packed off to Roanoke for the annual meeting with Virginia Tech, which played VMI there nearly every year from 1913 to 1971.
A 34-0 Tech romp in '71 was the last time VMI, where corps attendance at home games is mandatory, emptied out the place for a road game. It couldn't hurt this week; VMI hasn't beaten the Tribe since '85.
``I don't think just because of the hype of the corps being there that there will be any added hurt if we lose,'' Coley said. ``Any loss hurts.''
Still, he said, ``you don't want to let down the corps.''
Not long ago, a letdown was all but guaranteed. Most weeks now, at least, there's a little suspense. And a lot more hope. by CNB