The Niners game against Seattle Saturday night in Vancouver, British Columbia started horribly for Jim Druckenmiller, but finished well, with Druck doing what he does best - winning.

Jim didn't get in until there were about six minutes to go in the third quarter, and he played four series of downs that I remember:

First series:  Druck throws two bad-looking passes, both incomplete, and the Niners go three and out.  Druck walks back to the sidelines looking tense and irritated with himself.

Second series:  Druck throws two more bad-looking passes, both incomplete, and the Niners go three and out again.  Once again, Druck looks tense and tight as he exits the field.  At this point, between Ty Detmer (two series) and Druck (two series), the Niners have (-8) yards of offense in the second half.

Third series:  by now, there's about ten minutes to go, and the ballgame is tied at 21.  Druck throws another bad pass, for another incompletion.  At this point, he's 0-5, and I'm thinking, "The San Francisco press is going to eat him alive."

The camera shows Druck.  Despite being 0-5, he's grinning.  I think to myself, "Now that's more like it.  That's the Jim Druckenmiller I know."

Suddenly, Druck comes alive, hitting short passes and mid-range passes with accuracy and confidence.  He marches the Niners down the field, and in Seattle territory, rookie running back Pepe Pierson (spelling gaffs excused) coughs up the football for a turnover.  There are only four minutes to go, and Druck might not make it back in.

But wait!  The Seahawks throw an interception, and the Niners get it back on the Seattle 45, with 1:50 on the clock, and the score still tied, 21-21.

Fourth series:  Druck continues to play with confidence and throw with accuracy.  On one play, a defender bats a pass back to him, and Druck catches it and tries to run.  He is thrown for a five yard loss, but I'm thinking to myself, "Cool ... another completed pass."  Druck is smokin' at this point.

Druckenmiller continues to move the Niners downfield with short and mid-range passes, and with two seconds left to go, San Francisco kicks a 30-yard field goal for the victory, 24-21.

After starting 0-5, Druck hit 8 of his last 9 to finish 8-14, 69 yards, 0 INT's, 0 TD's.

After the game, Druck was commendably critical of his performance, saying, "I didn't do anything impressive out there," showing that he learned his lesson with the press and now knows that self-deprecation is the key to being accepted by the fans and press.

He's right, he didn't do anything impressive, but he did play well, recovering from a horrible start and getting the W.

If you follow pro football, then you know that CBS will once again be broadcasting NFL football.  This time around, it will be the AFC, and not the NFC.  Regardless, CBS's re-entry into NFL broadcasting can only be good for the Big East.

What do I mean by that?  Simple.  Now that CBS is broadcasting the NFL again, it gives them a forum in which to promote their college football telecasts, and perhaps to increase ratings.

About five years ago, shortly after the Big East signed a lucrative TV deal with CBS, the Big Eye network decided it wanted to de-emphasize sports and become the "family network."  CBS started dropping almost all major sports from its lineup and shifted their attention to promoting such family shows as "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman," and "Touched By an Angel."

That's all well and good, but in short order, it seemed as if the only sport CBS was showing other than college football was golf, and golf is a pretty weak forum in which to promote college football.  Meanwhile, ABC was buying up ESPN, which soon became a glorified marketing arm for ABC college football telecasts.

The ABC/ESPN business relationship has become a powerful, synergistic college football promotional machine that supremely outclasses CBS's lame efforts.  ABC even goes so far as to use Monday Night Football to promote their college broadcasts, and vice versa.   ABC is serious about sports, and they're burying CBS's weak, unfocused efforts.

And we won't even get into the fact that on the Internet, ESPN Sportszone cranks up the hype machine one more notch, while over on CBS Sportsline, many of their college football columnists routinely take cheap shots at the Big East - the conference that CBS has a television deal with!

CBS expects to just put the product out there and have it sell, without any focused marketing.  That works with the SEC (one of CBS's other college football commodities), but not so with the Big East.

So perhaps someone at CBS will get a clue and use their NFL broadcasts to promote their college football broadcasts, and vice versa.  And maybe they'll slap those goons at CBS Sportsline around a little bit and tell them to stop slamming the Big East.

This won't solve the other problem with the CBS/Big East relationship, namely that CBS, if they had their way, would scrap their Big East telecasts and turn their network into the "All-SEC, all the time" college football network.  There is talk that CBS wants to decrease their already lame number of yearly Big East telecasts, which currently stands at a measly 10-11 games, down to something really weak, like five games a year (which smells suspiciously like their deal with Conference USA).

In the end, there is only one solution for the Big East:  just win, baby.  If WVU and Syracuse can pull off upsets of Ohio State, Tennessee, and/or Michigan early in the year, perhaps the Mountaineers and Orangemen will climb in the rankings, and their contests with Tech will be more likely to be shown on CBS.  Otherwise, it's hello, ESPN2 or Big East network for those games.

The irony in all this?  As it currently stands, Tech is scheduled to play no games on CBS this year, while four Tech games - Miami, Pittsburgh, Boston College, and Virginia - are scheduled to air on ESPN.

I had the good fortune to attend the Outback Steakhouse Welcome Back Picnic on Sunday night.  It was originally scheduled to be held in Lane Stadium, but with rain, it was moved inside to Cassell Coliseum.

There were approximately six hundred attendees, and Outback provided the food free of charge.  350 tickets were sold at $10 apiece, and the proceeds, all $3500, went towards furniture for a new football players' lounge.  The extra attendees over the original 350 consisted of Tech staff, family members, and kids under 12, who got in free.

Bill Roth and Mike Burnop emceed the event.  First we ate, and then Athletic Director Jim Weaver welcomed us.  Strength and conditioning coach (and assistant AD) Mike Gentry introduced the strength and conditioning award winners, plus the Super Iron Hokie award winners, and then Bill and Mike introduced the freshmen.  Coach Beamer followed up with a few words.

Then Bill and Mike auctioned off a few items.  A 1997 Nat Williams #92 jersey went for $160, and then a Wilson "Virginia Tech" football went for about $400.   After that, a Tech helmet, signed by Coach Beamer, went for about $600, and in case you're wondering, it was one of the old helmets, not one of the new ones.

At the end, we filed out into the Cassell corridors, where we got to mingle with the players and get autographs.  I made it my mission to get as many signatures as I could from the new freshmen, and here's what I experienced as I made my way around:

Grant Noel:  as I entered the hallway, looking for autographs, Grant saw my searching glance, walked up, stuck his hand out, and said, "Hi, I'm Grant Noel."  Grant was the only kid to approach me and introduce himself, and because of that, I'm a big Grant Noel fan for the next five years, and beyond.  I asked him how things were going, and as he signed my new Maroon book, he said, "It's tough, trying to learn the new system."  I wished him luck and moved on.

Lee Suggs:  Lee is a shy, soft-spoken kid.  He is a class act, a kid who will probably never seek out the limelight or draw attention to himself.   I got him to sign my book and asked him if he was going to redshirt, and he told me that the coaches weren't talking redshirting yet, that it was too early to decide.

Jake Houseright:  nice kid, and yes, he's all that.   As Hokie Jeff said, he should have a big red "S" n his chest (no kidding, he looked like he was wearing shoulder pads under his jersey).  Jake signed my Maroon book very slowly, prompting me to ask if he was "working on a new signature."   He laughed.

Michael Vick and Ronyell Whitaker:  I got these two guys together.  I said to Vick, "Mr. Vick, I'd like to get your autograph, and a prediction on how many national championships we're going to win while you're here."  He very seriously said, "Two," and then he and Ronyell discussed whether it was going to be one or two as Vick signed my book.  As Ronyell signed my book, I asked him, "Were all those stories about UVa chasing you around after you committed to us true?"  He laughed and said, "Yeah, but that was all right."  Then he said, "I'm here now!"

Terrell Parham:  I told Terrell, "Thanks for coming up here all the way from Florida.  I'll bet it's a lot cooler up here than it was down there."  He laughed.  I didn't have the heart to tell him about January and February in Blacksburg.

Emmett Johnson and Willie Pile:  Nice kids, both of them.   Emmett was wearing a T.J. Jackson jersey (there were a lot of players wearing other players' jerseys), so I thought he was T.J. at first, but that's fine, because I wanted Emmett's autograph, too.  I got a picture taken with the two of them (at 5-8, I joked, "Anybody got a box I can stand on?").  As I walked away, I told Willie, "Nice job in that All-Star game.  You had everybody talking about you."  He got a look on his face that said, Really?  Willie must not read HokieCentral - yet.

Since I'm the president of the "I Like Ike" fan club, I also got Ike Charlton's autograph.  I didn't get a chance to talk with Ike very much, but I will tell you that he has a very magnetic personality.  As much as we're all drawn to him as a player, I can report that if you ever get to meet him in person, you'll be drawn to him as a person, too.  He has an "I love life" air about him.

Lastly, during dinner, I got to meet Shyrone Stith, who is a nice, friendly kid with a million-dollar smile.  He reminds a lot of people of Vaughn Hebron on the field, and he reminded me of him in person, too.  If you ever meet Shyrone, go ahead and chat with him.  He's a really nice kid and a hard worker, very team-oriented.  I think he and Pegues are going to have great years in 1998, and then Shyrone is going to have more great years after that.

All in all, I enjoyed myself, but I didn't get to meet as many players as I'd hoped, and in the rush, I didn't get a chance to talk to many of them.  In particular, I would have liked to talk to Grant Noel, Jake Houseright, Willie Pile, Ike Charlton, and Shyrone Stith more than I was able to.

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