THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 21, 1996 TAG: 9609210532
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: 48 lines
Rutgers is as East Coast as it gets in college football. But the Scarlet Knights will bring a distinctive West Coast feel to Virginia Tech today when the Big East teams meet (noon, WTKR).
Head coach Terry Shea, an Oregon native, came to Rutgers last spring after two years as head coach at San Jose State, two years as an offensive coordinator for Bill Walsh at Stanford and a season as quarterbacks coach for British Columbia of the Canadian Football League.
He installed the pass-happy West Coast offense at the New Jersey school. The Scarlet Knights are gambling they can chew up opponents with short passes to scatbacks who will break free for long yardage.
That gamble hasn't been paying off. Rutgers is 1-2 - the lone victory came over Division I-AA Villanova - and was shut out by Miami 33-0 in its last outing. Shea has used three quarterbacks and his starter, Mike Stephans, is a walk-on from the baseball team.
``Mike Stephans is our starting quarterback,'' Shea said. ``He's going to continue to develop.
``Somehow we're going to get this offense untracked. Virginia Tech is just as strong defensively as Miami. It will be quite a challenge.''
Virginia Tech is 2-0, ranked 18th nationally, has won 12 in a row and will be playing its first home game.
Tech is coming off a 45-7 thrashing of Boston College, and except for a foot injury to linebacker Tony Morrison, is relatively injury free.
If Rutgers has an advantage, it is defensive coordinator Rod Sharpless, who was co-defensive coordinator for the Hokies last season.
``You certainly can't discount the fact that it gives you a tremendous resource,'' Shea said of Sharpless. ``We will try to tap that resource.
``But I've been on both ends of that kind of a situation, and once the game begins, it doesn't seem to make much difference.''
What might make a difference, Tech coach Frank Beamer said, is the Rutgers line.
``I was watching them against Miami and was impressed,'' Beamer said. ``They've got some good looking big old strong boys. . . . Then I looked at their roster and saw that out of the 10 starting linemen, nine are seniors.
``This is not going to be an easy game.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
``It will be quite a challenge,'' said Rutgers coach Terry Shea
about today's game at Virginia Tech. by CNB