Tech-nically Speaking, They Need to Blow Past Hurricanes

“Waco & Blacksburg” might sound like a steak sauce but actually these outposts are primed to provide important answers as to where this season could be headed.

If No. 3 Virginia Tech is going to make a move in the bowl championship series, and become this year’s Auburn, and lead us on another hellish BCS hayride, it might as well start this weekend.

Virginia Tech closed the gap on No. 2 Texas in this week’s BCS standings, which is important because only the top two teams get tickets to this season’s national title game, the Jan. 4 Rose Bowl.

Should No. 1 USC, No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Virginia Tech finish the year undefeated, the BCS will be faced with a repeat of last year’s fiasco in which Auburn finished 12-0 but had to watch USC and Oklahoma play for the championship.

It’s true that Texas has a comfortable lead over Virginia Tech for the all-important second spot, .0435 of a point, a two-pillow cushion by BCS standards, and so far it looks like Tommy Trojan vs. Bevo.

But be warned. ...

Texas, which lost ground last week when it had to rally from 28-9 down to beat Oklahoma State, plays much-improved Baylor in Waco.

Meanwhile, a several-days mule ride away, Virginia Tech (8-0) plays host to BCS No. 6 Miami (6-1) in the most interesting game since USC at Notre Dame.

If Virginia Tech takes care of business against a team of Miami’s pedigree, and Texas struggles against Baylor, it could set up an interesting four-week run for the roses.

Virginia Tech’s best chance to make up BCS ground is to steal enough votes from Texas in the two human polls and then hope the Hokies’ computer average, which figures to improve as Texas’ goes down, can push them over the top.

This is where things can get ugly.

After 2001, in the spirit of sportsmanship, the BCS commissioners ordered that margin-of-victory be removed from the computers, but they could not remove it in the eyes of the voters.

Last week, USC reclaimed its No. 1 BCS status because it won back enough poll voters by blowing out Washington State while Texas was taking its sweet time turning tables in Stillwater.

Texas needs to mash Baylor, in other words, and Virginia Tech, if it can, has to turn the beat round on Miami.

None of this is going to be easy.

Baylor’s scoring defense ranks a respectable No. 33 in the nation this week, tied with USC.

And while Miami has lost four of its last five games at Blacksburg, the Hurricanes still have enough swagger to make that four out of the last six.

If unranked Baylor can play Texas tough, though, and Virginia Tech beats Miami, voters may want to reward the Hokies more than the Longhorns.

Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer says he doesn’t talk about the BCS with his team.

“The only way we can affect the BCS is to go play well against Miami,” he said.

However, no good coach -- and Beamer is among the best -- is going to tone down the rhetoric if things break Virginia Tech’s way on Saturday.

It will be Beamer’s duty to extol his team’s virtues. In fact, he is already talking generically about the need to have the four best schools play-off at the end, and says he would be saying this even if his team wasn’t No. 3.

This is called getting the conversation started.

And what if Virginia Tech loses to Miami?

Well, substitute undefeated Alabama into the BCS discussion and see if anyone from Tuscaloosa has an opinion.

Strike the Pose

The race for the Heisman Trophy is officially interesting.

This marks the 19th year the Rocky Mountain News is conducting a weekly survey of 10 regionally-based voters and, for the first time this season, a player from USC is not in first place.

The top spot is now occupied by Texas quarterback Vince Young, who had one of the more jaw-dropping performances in recent memory last Saturday as he passed for 239 yards and ran for 267 as he rallied his team to a win at Oklahoma State.

Young holds a four-point lead over USC tailback Reggie Bush, followed by quarterbacks Matt Leinart of USC and Brady Quinn of Notre Dame.

UCLA tailback Maurice Drew is fifth, and Bruin quarterback Drew Olson is among players receiving votes.

Playing this out, Young has advantages over Bush because he touches the ball every offensive play and can amass huge yardage and touchdown totals.

Bush is so electric he makes you glad you have TiVo, but he is also surrounded with so much talent he sometimes shares the load like one spoke in a hot-rod wheel.

Remember, though, Heismans tend to be won with big games, on big stages, late in the season.

Carson Palmer likely clinched his 2002 trophy with huge performances on consecutive weekends against UCLA and Notre Dame. Last year, Leinart locked up the award with an air-it-out effort against Notre Dame.

In 1997, Michigan’s Charles Woodson’s Nov. 22 national television performance against Ohio State likely won him the award over Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning, who played Kentucky that day.

The advantage Bush and Leinart have on Young is they get to play UCLA in a stand-alone game on Dec. 3, possibly with both teams undefeated, possibly with the national title at stake.

For what it’s worth, the Rocky Mountain News poll has picked 15 Heisman winners in 18 years, but last year incorrectly picked Oklahoma’s Jason White to win.

It Doesn’t Add Up

Introducing what could become a semi-regular column feature: “Five things about the BCS Standings I can’t explain.”

This week:

1: How come two-loss Notre Dame is ranked No. 22 in the computers after having played USC, Michigan and Michigan State, but two-loss Ohio State is No. 8 after having played Texas, San Diego State, Miami of Ohio, and Indiana?

2: How could Auburn, which plays in the Southeastern Conference, regarded by many as the toughest in the nation, have a 0.000 rating in the BCS computers on Nov. 3?

3: How come Alabama, which also plays in the SEC, is No. 4 in the computers with a nonconference schedule that included Middle Tennessee and Utah State?

4: How can Oklahoma have a combined 22 points in the two human polls (USC, by contrast, has a combined 4,352) and still check in at No. 25?

5: How is it that Wes Colley could have USC at No. 4 in his computer ratings after the Trojans won their 30th game in a row?

Wait, can I make it six things?

6: How can Texas Tech have the 11th best computer ranking after playing Florida International, Indiana State and Sam Houston State?

Anyone for seven?

How can Miami be ranked No. 14 in the Colley Matrix?

OK, next week: “Ten things about the BCS standings I can’t explain.”

Hurry-Up Offense

* Mutual respect society. Texas quarterback Young says he admires USC quarterback Leinart so much he recently left his cellphone number with an intermediary who knows Leinart, never thinking the USC quarterback would ever call.

Well, two days before Texas played Texas Tech, Leinart did call.

When Leinart said, “This is Matt,” Young thought it was Matt Nordgren, a Texas teammate.

Young said he told Leinart he appreciated the way he handled the spotlight of being a quarterback at a high-profile school, and Leinart returned the praise.

The quarterbacks could not hail from more different backgrounds. Young was raised on the tough streets of Houston; Leinart in relative Orange County bliss.

“I’ve been to the OC,” Young said with a chuckle. “It’s way different.”

* “Three yards and a cloud of dust” is a good way to describe the defenses meeting in Blacksburg on Saturday. Miami leads the nation in total defense, giving up only 3.29 yards a play, and Virginia Tech is No. 2 at 3.92. Virginia Tech is No. 1 in scoring defense, at 9.1 points a game, and Miami is No. 3 at 10.9.

* Looking ahead to Dec. 3? The last time USC and UCLA were undefeated when they met was 1969 -- although both schools had a tie that season, UCLA versus Stanford and USC against Notre Dame. In 1976, UCLA was unbeaten (with a tie at Ohio State) and USC had suffered only an opening defeat to Missouri. In 1988, USC was 9-0 entering the game and UCLA was 9-1 with a loss to Washington State.