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New head coach Bo Pelini has Nebraska off to a 3-0 start. The Huskers figure to get their toughest test yet tonight. |
BY JIM McCONNELL
Back in the mid-1990s, when Frank Beamer was still laying the foundation for Virginia Tech's emergence on the national scene, convincing bowl victories over traditional powers Alabama and Texas helped solidify the Hokies' reputation as a program on the rise.
In 1996, when Virginia Tech lost 41-27 in the Orange Bowl to another member of college football's elite class, Nebraska, it showed the Hokies how much ground they had left to cover.
"I thought they taught us what it took to be big-time that night," Beamer recalled earlier this week, as Virginia Tech prepared for its first-ever trip to Lincoln, Neb., and a non-conference game against the Cornhuskers tonight.
"We kind of hung in there with them with our first group. But that second and third group that's what got us. They were big and physical back then, too. I think that's just Nebraska football."
It certainly was under former coach Tom Osborne, the Hall of Famer who has returned to Nebraska as athletic director. Osborne built the program into a consistent national championship contender largely on the strength of a power running attack and a big, physical, attacking defense.
Lately, though, the Cornhuskers haven't been anything your father or grandfather might recognize.
Nebraska fired Osborne's hand-picked successor, Frank Solich, after a 10-3 season in 2003. Former Oakland Raiders coach Bill Callahan was hired to replace the run-oriented attack with a West Coast passing offense, but he fell well short of returning the Huskers to their glory days.
Callahan's 27-22 record at Nebraska included two losing seasons in four years on the job--a standard of mediocrity unacceptable to fans so accustomed to winning. After a 5-7 finish last season that included a humiliating 76-39 loss to Kansas, Osborne dumped Callahan and brought in LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini to right the floundering ship.
With wins in his first three games, albeit against less-than-overpowering competition, Pelini seems to have Nebraska headed back in the right direction. His hard-nosed approach to the game certainly appeals to the Huskers' rabid fan base, which has produced 293 consecutive sellouts at 81,067-seat Memorial Stadium.
But in a reversal of roles from the teams' first meeting 12 years ago, Nebraska's players and coaches are now looking at Virginia Tech as a measuring stick for their own progress.
"Any time you have a big-name opponent coming into your house, prime-time Saturday-night game, it's a game you want to win," wide receiver Todd Peterson said. "We feel like this is a step up in the competition. We need to figure out where we're at."
It's important for Virginia Tech, too. Since joining the ACC in 2004, the Hokies are only 4-5 against non-conference BCS opponents away from Lane Stadium, with all four victories coming against Big East teams.
Pelini had a hand in one of those defeats: a 48-7 thumping at LSU last September that knocked Virginia Tech out of the national championship picture in the second week of the season.
"It was just one of those days where the snowball got rolling, and it's hard to stop it," Pelini said. "I've been on the back end of those, too. It doesn't say anything about their coaching or their players, it just happens. That's why you have to respect the game."
While Beamer won't mention the LSU debacle to his young team, which tonight could dress as many as 30 players who didn't even make the trip to Baton Rouge, he acknowledged the importance of performing well on a big national stage.
"We need to get some wins against some prominent programs, and there's no more prominent program than Nebraska," he added. "You hear so many great things about the atmosphere there. Young kids, old kids, it's probably going to be pretty exciting."
Jim McConnell: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com
VIRGINIA TECH (3-1) |
