
DATE: Tuesday, October 28, 1997             TAG: 9710280507

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Steve Carlson, Staff Writer 

                                            LENGTH:  460 lines

SIX DAYS IN THE LIFE OF VIRGINIA TECH FOOTBALL ONE WEEK, ONE GOAL, ONE GAME

Staff writer Steve Carlson spent last week inside the Virginia Tech football program....

Saturday, 12:30 p.m., Holiday Inn, Washington, Pa.:

The lights are out. The room is deathly quiet. Each man clutches a small chain link.

A single link is of little use until joined with others. This is the chosen symbol of Virginia Tech's offense.

The Virginia Tech-West Virginia kickoff is three hours away. Tech offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle is meeting with his unit in a hotel ballroom to offer one more nugget of motivation.

``Each of you is a link in a chain,'' Bustle tells his players.

There are other links in college football's chain that most people never see. Each week, players and coaches repeat the cycle of preparation: an endless series of meetings, punishing practices, pep talks, training-table meals, film sessions, study halls, sleep-inducing classes, trips to the training room and the weight room. . . .

The weeks link together to form a season. This week could make one team's chain and break the other's. Both teams are nationally ranked. The Big East title and a Bowl Alliance bid might hinge on the outcome.

Bustle's brief talk is winding down.

``Together we will,'' he says. ``Good luck to you.''

The lights go on. A week's worth of work is about to be put to the test.

MONDAY

3:15 p.m., Jamerson Athletic Center:

For the players, the work week begins with, naturally, a meeting. In a week's time, there will be more meetings than it takes to reach most peace accords.

About 110 players are spread out all over the large room. Head coach Frank Beamer, standing behind the microphone in a golf shirt and well-worn shorts, runs things like a casually dressed CEO. He oversees everything but delegates liberally to his assistants.

The coaches' week began Sunday with about 10 hours of film study and staff meetings. They were back at it by 7 a.m. Monday.

``I'm tired right now, and that's after an open week,'' assistant head coach Billy Hite says.

Beamer zips through a couple of agenda items, including a letter from a fan complimenting the team's behavior at a hotel a couple of weeks ago.

Then he mentions it's business week with West Virginia on the schedule, and he promises the Mountaineers will play better Saturday than on any of the film the Hokies will see. Seven minutes in, Beamer's done: ``Any questions? Go man, go.''

And go they do. Now it's downstairs for - what else? - more meetings. In rat-a-tat-tat fashion players are moved in and out during special teams meetings, presided over by Beamer and various assistants. First punt team, then field goal block, then kickoff return, then kickoff coverage. They watch tape of the last game, practice, last year versus West Virginia and the Mountaineers in the various situations. Coaches hold a clicker and run plays over and over again, using a pen-light device to pinpoint areas of the screen.

At 4 p.m. special teams meetings end and position meetings begin. Defensive line coach Charley Wiles gives his players a 36-page packet that includes bios of Mountaineer players, stats, a scouting report and diagrams of their favorite plays.

And a first-page attention-grabber, a newspaper quote from West Virginia tailback Amos Zereoue that includes this: ``I know we can run the ball on Tech.''

5 p.m., practice field:

The air horn blows to start practice. Gosh it's cold out here. Wait a minute, half the coaches are wearing shorts.

``Young coaches are the ones who get old coaches fired,'' a well-bundled Hite says, laughing at assistant Bryan Stinespring in shorts, ``because they're stupid.''

A horn blows every eight to 10 minutes, signaling the next practice period, and players scatter to different spots on the three fields. The precision is impressive.

That precision spills over into Beamer's home life. His wife Cheryl says that in the summertime, when Frank is cooking out and she asks when the food will be done, his response is something like: ``At 8:03.''

6:30 p.m., training table:

The Hokies are hungry for a win Saturday, but tonight they'll have to settle for barbecue chicken and ribs, corn on the cob, baked beans, mashed potatoes and corn bread. An Orange Bowl banner and jerseys adorn the walls. A football and helmet sit on the dessert table, surrounded by chocolate cake.

After eating at the dormitory cafeteria, Beamer ambles back across campus to the athletic center, where he joins voice of the Hokies Bill Roth at about 7:25 p.m., five minutes before airtime for his weekly call-in show. ``I'm a little early tonight,'' Beamer says. ``I usually walk in around 7:29.''

8:35 p.m., offensive staff meeting room:

Bustle guides the coaches through a video containing nothing but West Virginia blitzes. Stinespring is dipping Skoal. Hite is working on one of the two dozen or so cups of coffee he drinks each day.

Stinespring estimates the offensive coaches spend 38 hours a week in this windowless room. Thirty-six plays are diagrammed on one board, while another lists the Hokies' plays by their code names. Tech runs a no-huddle offense, with plays called at the line of scrimmage.

The phone in Bustle's office across the hall rings at about 9:45. He knows who it is before checking the answering machine five minutes later: ``Dad, this is Brad. When you get back can you call me and let me know when you're going to get home?''

Brad, 10, has been told by his mother he can stay up late with his dad watching Monday Night Football.

At 10:15, ``End of tape'' flashes on the screen. As he walks toward his car, Bustle contemplates the toll these hours take on the family.

``It's tough,'' Bustle says. ``Thursday's are good nights and we have Bradley night. We'll take him out to eat wherever he wants to go and we'll play video games and he just beats my brains out.''

TUESDAY

8:30 a.m., offensive staff meeting room:

Hey, did any of these guys go home last night?

The coaches are looking at more West Virginia video and tape of Tech's Monday practice.

Every nuance of West Virginia's formations, technique and tendencies is dissected during the film study. One play is run back 17 times, another 12 times. They spend 15 minutes debating how to block a particular Mountaineer blitz, and it's one West Virginia rarely uses.

9:20 a.m., defensive staff meeting room:

Coordinator Bud Foster and the other assistants are working on the game plan, which comes together bit-by-bit throughout the week.

Monday both sides of the ball work on short-yardage, goal-line and blitz situations. Tuesday it's first- and second-down runs and play-action passes. Wednesday it's third-and-3 or longer situations, drop-back passes, draws and screens. Thursday is dress rehearsal, when coaches may give players a written test, and in practice simulate game situations to see how players react.

A chalk board on one wall contains every defensive call in Tech's arsenal. For the uninitiated, they might as well be hieroglyphics.

Tech's base defense is called G. Written under G are adjustments like ``Psycho,'' and ``Echo'' and ``whip dog 6.'' Foster tells the staff ``man zone, s-bandit should be good; 5-combo should be good; 7-mabel should be good.''

Apparently, plain English is not good.

2:05 p.m., weight room:

Today's challenge: Hang clean a Mountaineer.

Mike Gentry, Tech's assistant athletic director for athletic performance, has written on a chalk board the names and weights of West Virginia linemen. The challenge for Tech linemen is to hoist a bar with the corresponding weight on it from their waist to their shoulders three times.

Defensive end John Engelberger is first up, and immediately goes after the heaviest Mountaineer lineman, 305-pound offensive guard Randy Dunnigan.

``Dunnigan's gone,'' Gentry bellows when Engelberger completes the lift.

During the season, the linemen lift three times a week for about 45 minutes, the skill guys twice a week. In the offseason the time multiplies. How many hours will a fifth-year senior like guard Gennaro DiNapoli log in the weight room during his career?

``About a million and a half,'' DiNapoli says as he sits down with a pair of 65-pound dumbbells to do shoulder presses. ``This is what we're about, man. Without this, there is no football.''

4:15 p.m., practice:

It's still cold out here, but Beamer is hot.

``This right here bothers me,'' he tells the players as he waves a piece of paper.

Tech has obtained a copy of a story in the Morgantown paper off the internet in which West Virginia defensive tackle Henry Slay called the Hokies ``dirty players'' and nose tackle John Thornton referred to them as ``nasty.''

Beamer says he is upset and disappointed, but that talking trash won't win the game, and he doesn't want the Hokies responding with verbal barbs.

``What it does tell me is there's not a heck of a lot of respect for what we're all about,'' Beamer says. ``It's almost like they're daring us to come in there.''

WEDNESDAY

6 a.m., Lane Stadium:

It's called ``Sunrise Service.''

``Moonlight Service'' would be more accurate, since sunrise is about an hour away.

It's a beautiful, crisp morning in Blacksburg. A half moon and countless stars shine in the sky. The view is breathtaking from the top row of Lane Stadium.

But the five Tech players up here don't have much breath left. They are running the stadium steps - all 220 of them.

Actually, they get to walk the first section (58 steps), run the second (84) and walk the third (78). That doesn't sound so bad - until you find out they have to make the trip to the top six times.

Four of the five fell short of the required 10 hours of study hall for younger players or those who don't maintain a certain grade-point average. One missed a weightlifting session. Bad move. Gentry, the strength coach, oversees the Sunrise Service.

Most players learn avoid the Sunrise Service - all five of today's participants are freshmen. It takes them about 30 minutes to complete the task.

``It felt like three days,'' says Anthony Lambo.

2:40 p.m., senior seminar:

Ken Oxendine is giving it second- and third-effort. He's trying to fend off the opposition, which proves to be just too tough. Finally Oxendine succumbs and hangs his head.

He's asleep.

His advanced topics in industrial organization class has gotten the better of him.

Virginia Tech's star running back made it through his first class, where the instructor was dry and droning. He made it through his second class, where he had a 35-question test on personal finance. Studying for that kept him up until about 2 a.m., and he was back at it by 8:45 a.m. in the athletic study lounge.

The affable Oxendine has a smile so bright and wide it should be in a toothpaste advertisement. He greets people warmly as he walks among the picturesque stone buildings on campus.

The pace is almost non-stop for Oxendine throughout the day. During the break between morning and afternoon classes, he grabs a quick bite and eats it while watching ``Jerry Springer'' with the crowd in an athletic lounge. Today's segment features a chair-throwing melee between Klansmen and the Jewish Defense League.

Oxendine heads downstairs, stopping to peek in the gym, where assistant coaches are playing basketball on their lunch break. Oxendine giggles at them, then it's on to a computer lab, where he works on a paper for about an hour.

Oxendine, a psychology major who says he has about a 2.3 GPA, is on track to graduate in the spring. He wants to work for a corporation in employee relations. He doesn't want to be stereotyped as a jock.

``From 9 to 3 the only thing I think about is school work and what goes on around it,'' Oxendine says. ``Football is nothing, I don't even think about it.''

He recovers after dozing just a few minutes in his 2-3:15 p.m. class. Oxendine walks into the sunshine after class and says: ``A day half over. I was dying.''

Now it's time to turn on the football switch, starting with a running backs meeting followed by practice.

``I like practice,'' Oxendine says. ``A lot of people complain, but I like it.''

4:30 p.m., practice:

``I don't usually spend two days on the same subject, but West Virginia is giving us so much it takes two days to talk about,'' Beamer tells the team. ``They just keep talking.''

Beamer has more inflammatory quotes to share. More indignation to express. Another reminder for the Hokies to keep their mouths shut, but use the comments as motivation.

There are three more motivators at practice today - scouts from the NFL's Eagles, 49ers and Broncos. According to John Ballein, assistant athletic director for football operations and Beamer's right-hand man, 53 pro scouts have been in for practice since the season began.

Most drills and plays elicit immediate encouragement, instruction or chastisement from the coaches. During special team's work, the players' lapse of concentration and a substitution problem has Beamer bellowing on his bull horn: ``Let's start this period over, stop the clock. This is horse----, guys messing around, not paying attention. West Virginia sees this crap and they'll be smiling.''

By the way, it is ridiculously cold up here with Tom Cioffi - here being at the top of a 50-foot tower.

Cioffi, a sophomore communications major, spends a couple of hours a day up here filming practice. For this he gets half his out-of-state tuition paid and probably two or three more colds a semester than the average Tech student.

It has been warm most of the fall until this week.

``I'm not really looking forward to the rest of the season,'' he says with a shiver.

THURSDAY

1:50 p.m., Beamer's office:

Beamer sits in an easy chair in his office planted in front of a 32-inch television screen, searching for humorous clips to show his players Friday night, a weekly tradition. This is generally where Beamer watches tape while his assistants are in their meetings.

``I spend a lot of time right here in this chair,'' he says.

This is the most casual day of the week for the coaches. Generally after practice they get a free night to have dinner and spend time with their families.

Beamer's office is cluttered with pictures, plaques and even state legislature proclamations noting the Hokies' successful seasons. Massive Big East Coach of the Year trophies for each of the last two seasons sit on a table. Seven game balls are encased in plastic on his walls, among them ones from the Sugar and Orange bowls, his 100th career win and his first wins over Miami and Virginia.

When asked which mementos carry the most meaning for him, Beamer examines his office for several minutes.

``I kind of go back to the ones that got us going, probably these two,'' Beamer says.

One is a frame containing game tickets, a sideline pass and a picture of Beamer with his arms raised in victory after a 12-10 win at No. 9 West Virginia in 1989. ``That's the first time we won a game that caught people's attention,'' Beamer says.

The other is a picture of Beamer getting the Gatorade bucket treatment from three players in 1993 after a win over Syracuse that clinched an Independence Bowl bid, his first in seven seasons as the head coach.

2:40 p.m., equipment room:

Boxes of Nike shoes are stacked several feet high. Brand new coaches' jackets hang on a rack. Every piece of football equipment imaginable is in this warehouse-like room. Two tons of it will go with to Pittsburgh via Ryder trucks.

Tech used to take the equipment on the charter, but it made the plane so heavy that it labored to clear the mountains around the Roanoke airport.

3:05 p.m., secretary's office:

Shelley Stinespring, one of the football secretaries, likes to joke that husband Bryan was hired as an assistant coach in 1990 because Beamer wanted to assure he could keep her. Bryan came to the Tech staff just two weeks after they were married.

Shelley Stinespring is one-up on most of the other coaches' wives: she actually gets to see her husband occasionally because they work in the same office.

``This is where we get a lot of our quality time together,'' Shelley says. For their 3-year-old son Daniel, that time comes after practice, when Shelley brings him out at the end so he can play with his father for a few moments.

4:15 p.m., practice:

It's dress rehearsal day, when each unit goes through down-and-distance scenarios in simulated game situations. The players are in helmets and sweats.

During special teams work, the Hokies fine-tune a fake punt they had worked on after practice Wednesday. Backup quarterback Nick Sorensen takes the snap as the short man and running an option left and pitches the ball to punter Jimmy Kibble. The Hokies have seen something on film about the way West Virginia rushes the punter and they like their chances of running the fake.

5:50 p.m., family night:

The Stinesprings walk off the practice field together and are heading to dinner. ``This is one night of normalcy,'' Bryan says.

Beamer and his son Shane, a Tech sophomore who plays on special teams, go out for their traditional Thursday-night prime rib dinner. Then it's on to Blacksburg High, where daughter Casey is a starter on the varsity basketball team. A fan comes up to shake Beamer's hand, which is full of popcorn that ends up underneath the bleachers.

Beamer's wife Cheryl hoots and hollers throughout the game.

``She was a cheerleader, Highland Springs High School,'' Beamer says, laughing.

The Beamers celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year. ``I tell people I don't have to worry about getting a divorce,'' Cheryl says. ``He's never home. I don't even know if I like him or not.''

11 p.m., curfew check:

Assistant coach Jim Cavanaugh is peering at mailboxes and doors of dimly lit apartment complexes, trying to find the right numbers. This is a random check of curfew, which Tech enforces only on Thursday and Friday nights.

Cavanaugh will call a few players from his office, and knock on four doors to check on others.

``Hey, when's the last time you've taken out the garbage?'' he says to Loren Johnson, Anthony Midget and Phillip Summers, noticing it's been a while.

FRIDAY

12:35 p.m., Roanoke airport:

The charter plane that will haul the Hokies to Pittsburgh is 20 minutes late. Ballein is on his cell phone to the high school in Pennsylvania where the Hokies are supposed to practice this afternoon to see if they can get the field later.

The charter finally arrives. The plane has the Florida Marlins logo and ``1997 NL champions'' on its tail, and it's natural to assume the Marlins flew home on it last night after Game 5 of the World Series. But a stewardess says the Marlins are superstitious and don't fly on this plane. They use the one with a Florida Panthers logo, and the NHL Panthers use this one.

Joining the coaches and 63 players on the trip are new athletic director Jim Weaver, president Paul Torgersen and his son and grandson, two members of the campus police force assigned to protect Beamer Saturday and Beamer's minister, who will bless the meals and give a Saturday morning chapel service. He used to be only at home games, but that changed a couple of years ago when Tech rattled off several consecutive home wins.

``He got on a hot streak and we decided to bring him on the road,'' Beamer says.

The coaches and support staff sit in the first 15 rows of the plane, while players occupy the next 18 - except for DiNapoli. Tech's best offensive lineman is afraid of flying, so he's in the bulkhead seat, next to the trainer. DiNapoli used to be almost hysterical on planes, but now he's merely petrified.

The Hokies are taking three small planes back to Blacksburg so they can fly right out of Morgantown after the game, while some managers and support staff will go home on a bus. DiNapoli asked to ride the bus back.

This trip is off to a bad start. The plane was late because there was a cracked window in the cockpit. Now the Hokies sit on the tarmac for nearly an hour as fuel is transferred from one of the plane's tanks to another. At 2:10 they take off, an hour and 10 minutes behind schedule.

2:55 p.m., Pittsburgh airport:

The plane touches down and the stewardess exclaims ``Good luck tomorrow beating Pittsburgh.''

Right league, wrong team.

5:15 p.m., Holiday Inn, Washington, Pa.:

It's raining and the Hokies are running an hour behind schedule. They call off their Friday afternoon workout and head to the hotel for another round of meetings.

The announcers who will call the game for CBS sit in the hotel lobby with a few players and then with Beamer. When they are finished with quarterback Al Clark, he walks away smiling: ``They're trying to get our gameplan out of us.''

7:30 p.m., Defensive team meeting:

Beamer had them rolling during his 15-minute positive video session, but from there the defensive players go into a meeting with a more somber tone. One last film study as players are told to put themselves mentally into the game situations flashing before them on the screen.

``He's a good back,'' Foster says as Zereoue, the nation's fifth-leading rusher, tears through Miami. ``I want him to walk off the field so sore from getting hit so many times that it isn't funny.''

SATURDAY

10:20 a.m., Holiday Inn:

After a continental breakfast and a round of final position meetings, the coaches come together one last time. After a couple of minutes, Beamer dismisses everyone but his two coordinators. ``Feel good about the kids?'' Beamer asks.

``Yeah, I think they're ready to play,'' Foster says.

After about five minutes, Beamer ends the meeting with, ``Go man, go.''

They go for the carbos, with a pregame meal of spaghetti and French toast four hours before kickoff. Then players head for offensive and defensive meetings. By now the stares are fixed, the banter nearly non-existent.

Before they board four buses for the one-hour drive to Morgantown, the entire team meets for five minutes. Beamer revisits one of the week's main themes: remember how the Mountaineers have been running their mouths, but don't lose your poise.

``Talking is not going to win this football game,'' Beamer says. ``Hitting them right in the fricking teeth is going to win this football game.''

3:28 p.m., Mountaineer Field:

The Hokies wait in the tunnel for a guy with a headset to tell them when they can run onto the field so CBS can capture it on camera. The sellout crowd boos lustily when Tech appears.

The Hokies take a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter. Then the Mountaineer mascot - who fires his musket whenever West Virginia makes a big play - goes on a shooting spree as the hosts score 24 unanswered points.

During the spree, the Hokies make a gutsy call, running the fake punt from their own 26. The good news is Kibble gains 29 yards. The bad news is it will be their longest play of the day.

The Mountaineers talked, then they backed it up. Zereoue rushes for 153 yards, quarterback Marc Bulger throws for 217. Final score: West Virginia 30, Virginia Tech 17.

``I think they might have been better than what we thought they were,'' DiNapoli says.

``After all the preparation all week long and all the work you put into it, and it just didn't work out,'' Hite says. ``You'll have this feeling in your stomach until next Saturday when you play again. Thank God we don't have an open date - then you have that thing stuck in your gut for two weeks.''

7:45 p.m., outside the buses:

Players mill around, talking to family and friends. There are hugs and words of consolation. One of the last ones out of the locker room is Clark, and a well-wisher spots him as he walks up the hill.

``Uh-oh, he's limping.''

``Boys beat me up pretty bad,'' says Clark.

He's not the only one. Receiver Angelo Harrison sprained his left foot, receiver Michael Stuewe re-sprained an ankle, cornerback Larry Green injured a shoulder and fullback Cullen Hawkins has a mild concussion.

Almost an hour after the game ended, Beamer and Ballein emerge from the locker room and a horn blows - everybody on the bus. The lights atop the police car that will escort Tech brighten up the night and the buses pull away from Mountaineer Field.

In 2 1/2 hours the Hokies will be back in Blacksburg. In about 13 hours the coaches will be back in their offices for Sunday morning meetings, starting the next work week. ILLUSTRATION: Color Photos by Ian Martin

Coach Frank Beamer addresses...

The Practice Field: Tech players stretch before practice...

The Coach's Office: Head Coach Frank Beamer, left, talks to

assistant athletic director John Ballein...

The Coach's meeting: Head coach Frank Beamer talks...

The Weight room: Receiver Angelo Harrison...

Family Time: Assistnat coach Bryan Stinespring wrestles with his

3-year-old- son Daniel...

Tech plaer Shane Beamer, son of coach Frank Beamer... KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA TECH