To celebrate Hokie Central's first birthday (the site debuted on March 12, 1996), I went through my archives and accumulated some quotes and thoughts from the first year. I actually only used the archives from the 1996 calendar year, so none of the material since the new year was used.

I hope you enjoy what I've come up with here, because I had a great (but sometimes not-so-great) time reading over the last year's events and thoughts. Have fun! -- Will.

This first birthday celebration is divided up into three sections:

• Quotes from the first year
• Quotes from 1996 football game reports
• Hokie Central's Year One Awards

A word of warning - I used the HTML "Blockquote" tag in the following quotes. I know it'll look okay in Netscape, but I can't vouch for what it'll look like in Internet Explorer or Mosaic.

Looking into the Crystal Ball

There are times when we look into the crystal ball and we're absolutely psychic, but more often than not, well ... it's a little foggy in there.

" What compounds Miami's mistake even further (the Canes had scheduled us for Homecoming) is that the game is on November 16th, our 9th game of the year. By then, our young defensive line will have jelled, and Miami will be in for it. Mark my words. "
-- from the 4/9/96 archive

" Now, it's April of 1996, Tech is a big-time player in college football, and all of a sudden, our guys can't stay out of jail. "
-- from the 4/16/96 archive (I had no idea how much worse it would get)

" I don't think we're good enough to be Big East champions right now or even contend for it. But maybe if we can get the chemistry right and get this thing together next fall, we could have a shot. But right now I don't think we make enough plays. I don't think defensively we're as strong as we need to be. "
-- Frank Beamer, as quoted in the 4/23/96 archive (fortunately, he was WAY wrong)

" Third (in the Big East) is about where we belong, I think. With road games at SU and Miami, as a matter of fact, I would be satisfied with a third place finish this year, mainly because it would take us the one place we haven't been the last three years - Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami and the Car Quest Bowl (pretty lame, huh? Being happy about third place because I'd get to go to Miami? What's happening to me?) I would be pretty happy with a second place finish, and ecstatic with a first place finish. "
-- from the 8/18/96 archive (okay, I'm ecstatic. We got to go to "Joe Robbie" for a different reason)

" Roanoke's Channel 10 is reporting that Marcus Parker's season is over. "
-- from the 10/1/96 archive (Greg Roberts gets one wrong)

" ... beware, Dan Henning: I think your days are numbered. "
-- from the 10/1/96 archive (the BC football coach was later fired)

" Why Tech Should Win Against Syracuse "
-- from the 10/1/96 archive (that was the title of an ill-fated piece I wrote in which I learned NOT to make game predictions. Syracuse 52, Virginia Tech 21)

" This year smacks of 1994, a year in which the Hokies went 8-4, which sounds good, but you never really felt good about the Hokies all year long. And when we lost, we lost BIG that year. "
-- from the 11/12/96 archive (Tech righted their football ship a few days later against ECU and never looked back)

" All I've got to say about the interception streak is ... go Druck! "
-- from the 12/5/96 archive (Jim would later break UVa's NCAA record-setting streak of games with an interception)

" The good news is, Tech won 66-50. The bad news is, the team, looks, uh ... rough. "
-- from the 12/19/96 archive (the Hokie basketball team would struggle with the act of putting the ball in the basket all season long)

Here are some of the more amusing quotes from the 1996 Hokie Central archives.

" Well, that's me and the Hokies. I'll bet that if you put a beeper on my hip and set it off at random, that 50% of the time it went off, I'd be thinking about the Hokies. "
-- from the 4/16/96 archive (and people wonder why I do Hokie Central)

" And what in the heck kinda name is Tiki anyway? Was his mother watching that 2-part Brady Bunch episode in Hawaii while she was in labor? "
-- from the 9/17/96 archive (reader Dion Pifer vents his rage at Tiki Barber's pointless "Tiki for Heisman" campaign)

" Lastly, the latest news is that as of Friday night, 1/3 of the Lane Stadium goal posts are in front of Burruss, 1/6 is in the Duckpond, and another sixth were sitting behind Arnold's. "
-- from the 12/5/96 archive (Hokies were celebrating Tech's first home victory over UVa since 1990)

" We'll let you off the hook this time, Advance Auto, but next time, be careful, because I might just take Part #57 and kick you right in Part #23 if you do that again. "
-- from the 12/19/96 archive (that was written in response to Advance Auto Parts flying a banner over Lane Stadium during the UVa game that said, "Advance Auto Parts Salutes Tiki Barber!")

It's no doubt that football is the marquee sport at Virginia Tech. When I write my football game reports, I try to capture a little of the excitement that takes place on the field. Here's a few quotes I found in the 1996 football game reports that I thought you'd enjoy.

Virginia Tech 21, Akron 18

" All right, all right, Hokie fans, calm down. I know you're hating the fact that we only beat Akron's mighty Zips by 3, and I'm not going to dress this pig of a game up in silk, but the bottom line is, we won. That's more than you can say about the BC opener a year ago. "
-- a succint recap of a forgettable game

Virginia Tech 45, Boston College 7

" People have been asking me for the last two days if Tech was that good or BC was that bad, and I've been telling them that it was a combination of both. "
-- the Hokies came out smoking and pounded an Eagles team that had dealt them a painful loss the year before

Virginia Tech 30, Rutgers 14

" It was late in the first quarter or early in the second. Tech was cruising with a 14-0 lead and a perfectly thrown ball was falling out of the sky into Angelo Harrison's hands for a 56-yard TD that was going to bury Rutgers and officially commence the blowout. Awestruck by the sheer perfection of the pass, the fans in Lane Stadium fell utterly silent as Druckenmiller's rain-maker descended from the ozone.

The next sound was a resounding groan when Harrison dropped it. Number 83 clapped his hands to his head and collapsed onto the end zone turf.

After that, things got interesting for a while. "
-- the Hokies would go on to struggle against a Rutgers team they should have crushed

" Who would have thought that the Hokies would start the season ranked #15 in the AP, go 3-0, and drop 3 spots in the poll? "
-- from here on out ... ME

Syracuse 52, Virginia Tech 21

" But now, we're back where where we started. We're hanging around the fringes of the Top 25, looking like a good-but-not-great football team. We'll probably end up somewhere between 2nd and 4th in the Big East, and we'll go to a bowl, hopefully the Car Quest or Gator Bowl. "
-- hmmm ... wrong again

Virginia Tech 38, Temple 0

" The sight of huge Hokie linemen bearing down on helpless 170-pound defensive backs makes me giggle with glee. "
-- referring to Tech's patented flanker screen play

" Temple had no answer for Myron's blitzes up the middle. At least three times, he came untouched up the middle on the snap of the ball, and he was on Burris so fast that the Temple QB couldn't have dialed 9-1-1 if you spotted him the first two numbers. "
-- the human dynamo named Myron Newsome will be dearly missed

Virginia Tech 34, Pittsburgh 17

" On defense, Pitt didn't do a whole lot right, but they didn't get destroyed either. They came into the game with one of the worst defenses in the country, statistically, prompting me to write that they "couldn't stop a dead gnat in a driving rainstorm." It turns out that Pitt played like a team who could tackle a good-size grasshopper in a medium rainshower. "
-- that's not the only time I've said something weird while typing late at night, and it won't be the last

" The problem at punter has been fixed. Jimmy Kibble isn't crushing the ball (38 yard average on Saturday), but he gets the kicks off with no drama, and with John Thomas suspended indefinitely for an unspecified violation, Kibble may not have any competition soon.

The problem at punt returner, however, did not go away with Walter Ford. "
-- once Shawn Scales started returning punts, though, the drama finally went out of special teams play

Virginia Tech 47, Southwest Louisiana 16

" It’s rare that you score 47 points and feel as if the offense didn’t play well, but that’s what happened to the Hokies against SW Louisiana last Saturday. "
-- we should have had that problem against Nebraska, huh?

" My answer to all that? A big, fat, “So what?” I read that prior to the SW Louisiana game, the Hokies had been inside the red zone 23 times and had scored 20 of those times, including 16 touchdowns. If they want to have a mediocre day at the office, then so be it. After all, I did a poor job of playing the role of “Hokie Central” on Saturday, so if the boys want to have an off day, that’s fine by me. Do you do a great job at work every day? Huh? Don’t lie to me.... "
-- nice attitude!

" And for one game at least, the Hokies found a kick returner. Shawn Scales ... "
-- we also found a hell of guy, too

Virginia Tech 35, East Carolina 14

" How did I love this game? Let me count the ways? "
-- the Hokies roared back from the Brawl suspensions earlier in the week and buried ECU on a frigid night at Lane Stadium in a dominating performance

" The key question for Tech is this: is this game just another flash in the pan, like the BC and Temple games were? Or is this the beginning of another patented Hokie sprint to the finish line? "
-- the "key answer" is this: it was a sprint, thank you very much

Virginia Tech 21, Miami 7

" Funny thing is, we didn’t win the game in the manner that most people thought we would. Conventional wisdom held that the Hokies were going to run the ball up the gut on Miami, where Tech’s offensive line held a 30+ pound advantage on Miami’s smallish tackles. A repeat of Tech’s 300-yard performance against the Canes last year was not out of the question. "
-- instead, Jim Druckenmiller and the entire Hokie defense led the way

" Miami’s next drive started at the 2, however, and the Hokies started to show signs of life defensively. In one of the more remarkable plays of the game, on third down, Brandon Semones blitzed, wrapped up Ryan Clement, and when Clement dumped the ball off to the fullback, Brandon jumped back up off the ground and made the tackle.

Phenomenal play. Miami punted, and they would not score again. "
-- Semones was the model of courage and consistency all year long

" How did you feel when Miami was driving down the field in the last two minutes? Were you worried? Did you think the Hokies were going to lose? Two or three years ago, I would have been right there with you, sweating bullets, convincing myself that the Hokies had come this far only to lose at the end. "
-- but those days are gone, for reasons that I detailed in the paragraphs that followed

" In the next three plays, Tony Gaiter didn’t catch the ball, and Keion Carpenter did. "
-- those two plays (Gaiter's drop at the goal line and Keion's 100 yard INT return) are woven into the fabric of Hokie football lore forever

" In the end, the biggest thing this win does is allow us to continue dreaming. We still have a shot at an Alliance Bowl, if we beat WVU and Miami beats Syracuse. We may or may not have to beat UVa in order to go to the Alliance. That all depends on the rankings. "
-- as I'm fond of saying, we all know how THAT came out

Virginia Tech 31, West Virginia 14

" In the final analysis, what lost the game for WVU was the inability to stop Tech’s passing game and their own inability to consistently execute on offense. There were no special teams nightmares here - WVU just got outplayed by a better team. "
-- Chad Johnston was WVU's achilles heel the entire year

" First of all, I don’t believe that Dunlap was given the green light by Nehlen to make those (pre-game) bulletin-board statements. Tech’s offensive line includes two NFL draft picks (Hagood and Conaty), three if you count Jennings. Tech’s line is big and they’re quick. The last thing you want to do is insult them the week before a big game by saying that they cheat. That was just stupid.

As for Nehlen, when the head coach is sniping about the opposing QB’s mouthpiece, I’m asking myself, “In all those hours of game film that you watched, THAT’s what you noticed about Druckenmiller?” Where are Nehlen’s priorities, with a huge conference game coming up? There’s no way you’re going to rattle Jim “Big Game” Druckenmiller, who is so cool that he’s listed with the EPA as an environmentally safe replacement for CFC’s. "
-- much was made of Dunlap's comments about Tech's offensive line committing "blatant" holding, as well as Nehlen's statements about Druck and his mouthpiece. I couldn't resist a few barbs afterwards

" I watched the (post-game) prayer meeting closely, and I can report that Druckenmiller was wearing his mouthpiece, and none of Tech's offensive linemen were committing holding against WVU's defensive linemen. "
-- more barbs

Virginia Tech 26, Virginia 9

" Not this time. This is a guy (Tiki Barber) who’s gotten around the corner on Michigan and Florida State, two of college football’s most storied programs, and neither one of them had a player who could catch Tiki. But neither one of them had Torrian Gray. 80 yards after Barber had broken into the clear, Gray ran him down, hooked his shoulder pads, and pulled him to the turf. UVa would have to settle for a field goal, and the tone of the game was established for Tech’s defense: take your best shot, but you’re not getting into the end zone. "
-- Gray's rundown of Tiki Barber also goes down in Tech football history

" Tech put the game away with their last TD after that, pulling an end-around out of the hat that hadn’t been seen all year. When Shawn Scales took the ball from Marcus Parker at about the 25 yard line, he had a convoy of five blockers waiting for him on the other side of the field. Once again, the Cavalier defense had overpursued, and once again, Ricky Bustle made them pay for it. "
-- I loved seeing Scales, a class act all the way, get that TD

" You’re probably the best team we’ve played all year. "
-- that was George Welsh's unforgettable statement to Frank Beamer when they shook hands at midfield after the game

" I stood in the stands for a while and watched the drunks attack the goal posts. It took them a while to get them down (because they’re building ‘em better these days), and once they were done, it was hysterical to watch the crowds carry them around. In case you’re wondering, the goal posts are about $3,000 apiece, and remarkably, they’re covered by insurance. With Tech’s track record, who would be dumb enough to insure the darn things? "
-- I already told you (further up the page) where they would eventually wind up

The Orange Bowl: Nebraska 41, Virginia Tech 21

" Big, strong, deeper team wears Hokies down. There's your game analysis. "
-- I went on to write more stuff, anyway

" The Hokie fans were their usual, hysterical selves. There's nothing quite like the crowds Tech has seen at the Sugar and Orange Bowls the last two years. Those fans are the hardcore fans, the ones who go nuts, and when you've waited a month and travelled about a thousand miles to see a game ... well, then you do get a little crazy when it finally starts.

For those of you who weren't there, I wish you could have been in Tech's corner of the end zone when Marcus Parker scored the Hokies' first TD. I mean, it was insane. "
-- I nearly sprained an ankle jumping around in the stands after that TD

" Tech has reached the status of a powerhouse program, in my opinion, bolstered by longevity in the coaching staff and one of the best strength and conditioning coaches in the country. We'll be back. Get used to success, because we've got the key ingredients in place to keep it going. "
-- here's to hoping that my crystal ball is CLEAR on that prediction!

I threw some awards together off the top of my head, without much thought, so don't hang me out to dry if you disagree with any of them. They're definitely football and basketball-oriented, so if you've got any awards you want to add to these, or any disagreements, post them on the message board. I'd like to hear from you!

Story of the Year: the string of arrests and negative publicity put together by the football team. No contest.
Runner-up: Tech's second straight BE championship and Alliance Bowl invitation, Yubrenal Isabelle's "commitment," improvements in facilities at Tech

Athlete of the Year: Jim Druckenmiller.
Runner-ups: Ken Oxendine, Ace Custis

Man of the Year: (tie) Brandon Semones and Shawn Scales
Runner-ups: Ace Custis, Dave Braine

Football Game of the Year: (tie) the ECU win and the Miami win
Runner-ups: Nebraska, and Virginia

Football Play of the Year: Keion Carpenter's 100 yard interception return against Miami
Runner-ups: Torrian Gray running down Tiki Barber, Cornell Brown's interception of a WVU lateral

Football Performance of the Year: Ken Oxendine's 150 yards+ rushing against Nebraska
Runner-ups: Cornell Brown's domination of WVU, Druckenmiller's game against Miami

Basketball Game of the Year: Virginia Tech 63, UMass 47
Runner-up: Virginia Tech 43, GW 41

Basketball Play of the Year: Ace's game-winner against GW
Runner-up: nothing else came close

Basketball Performance of the Year: Troy Manns' 30 points against Xavier
Runner-up: Ace's 16 points and 14 boards against Rhode Island in the A-10 tournament

Bumper Sticker of the Year: "Women at VMI? What Next? Men at UVa?"
Runner-up: "If God Isn't a Hokie, Then Why Do the Leaves Turn Orange and Maroon in the Fall?"

Question of the Year: "Coach, when are we going to start throwing the ball to Bryan Jennings?"
Runner-up: "Dave, when are we going to improve the out of conference football schedule?"

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