LANDOVER – Minus Mike Williams, the All-American wide receiver denied restored eligibility this week after courts had barred him from turning pro early, and star tailback Hershel Dennis, the target of a police investigation for sexual assault, Southern California is bleeding as it opens defense of its split national title.
The first heart not going out to the Trojans belongs to Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose team is still an 18-point underdog here tonight as the two clubs open the college football season.
Beamer lost his quarterback, Marcus Vick, suspended for the season after being arrested for reckless driving and marijuana possession after an initial arrest for contributing to the delinquency of three underage girls. And though the unranked Hokies go into their first game as members of the ACC feeling like they lose little with quarterback Bryan Randall, the coach suspects no one can win a war of attrition like USC.
“They got players who are just flat good, and they keep running them in there,” said Beamer. “They are playing well and recruiting great and it kind of builds on itself, like it has at Miami.
“Most people, asked to name five college football teams, would put Southern Cal in there. This a great high for our school to be on the same field.”
Fedex Field will be ringed by more than 80,000 Virginia Tech supporters on a site about as neutral as USC coach Pete Carroll’s feelings towards the NCAA. The NCAA didn’t rule on the return of Williams, who had dropped out of school last spring and taken a since-returned $100,000 advance from an agent, until an hour before the Trojans got on the plane Thursday.
“We knew all along from the tone at the highest level, we would be denied,” Carroll said bitterly, but comfort is found in a roster that is said to hold a staggering 40 members of NFL potential. “Whoever makes that statement in just guessing,” said Carroll. “These kids are so young, that’s way too presumptuous.”
A coach who returns 13 starters, including Heisman-touted quarterback Matt Leinart, Lombardi Award candidate Shaun Cody, Butkus Award possibility Matt Grootegoed, doesn’t want a team trying to be only the second ever to maintain a preseason No. 1 ranking all the way through the bowls, believing itself bulletproof.
“Forever, tirelessly,” Carroll said when asked how often he has talked with his team about handling success. “With Mike Williams’ situation and other things, we have had a lot going on, but I feel we have to become familiar with that if we are going to work out of this position. It’s part of being No. 1.”