doug.doughty@roanoke.com 981-3129

If there was any question that Roanoke has become ACC territory, there is a billboard alongside Interstate 581 that proclaims it.

The sign, measuring 14 feet by 48 feet, is one of seven rented by the ACC that reads, "The Atlantic Coast Conference Proudly Welcomes" above the logos for new members Virginia Tech and Miami.

Assistant commissioner Mike Finn said Wednesday that the ACC took out two-month rentals on billboards in Roanoke; Blacksburg; Richmond; suburban Washington, D.C., and three South Florida locations.

"The design of the minimarketing campaign is both good will and promotional," Finn said. "The sites were chosen from what was available that would provide a high area of exposure, in and around the school's home markets."

The billboard on I-495, the Capital Beltway, was in place prior to the game Aug.28 matching Virginia Tech and Southern Cal in Landover, Md. The billboards in Roanoke, Blacksburg and Richmond have been up since Sept.1.

The Florida locations are in Coral Gables, where Miami's campus is located; on an expressway near the Orange Bowl, where the Hurricanes play, and near Pro Player Stadium on I-95.

"Though Miami doesn't play there, many South Florida sports fans will travel by it daily and on Dolphin game days," Finn said.

A representative of Lamar Advertising in Roanoke said rates for a standard 14-by-48 billboard on I-581 range from $1,700 and $3,000 for two months, depending on viewership and positioning.

Finn would not provide a figure on a campaign that probably cost in the $25,000 range, allowing for higher rates in larger cities, "but, with a lot of negotiation, we did achieve a cost-effective campaign," he said.

Mixed reviews

Of the ACC quarterbacks who had starting debuts last week, North Carolina State junior Jay Davis, who led North Carolina State to a 42-0 victory over Richmond, clearly had a better experience than Maryland sophomore Joel Statham.

"I started to say something to him and he said, 'Coach, it can't get any worse than this; I'm fine,'" Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said Wednesday on the ACC coaches' weekly teleconference. "I said, 'You're right.'"

As opposed to Davis, who completed 16 of 22 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns, Statham fumbled four times as the Terps held off Northern Illinois, 23-20. Statham's last fumble led to an 85-yard touchdown return that made it a three-point game with 5:34 left.

"Right now, he's our quarterback," Friedgen said. "If I was going to change quarterbacks, it would have been in the first three series Saturday night."

Eyeing Ivan

Monday night's showdown between Miami and Florida State wasn't the first college football game to be postponed by a hurricane, but, with Hurricane Ivan advancing through the Caribbean, neither program would want to have it happen twice.

"There is concern," said Miami coach Larry Coker, now scheduled to face the Seminoles on Friday night. "This is my 10th year living in South Florida. The meteorologists do an unbelievable job, but yet there still is some uncertainty and I think we're still in the path of the storm, the broad 'cone,' as they say.

"The feeling is, it could be right or wrong, the hurricane's going to go south. It's going to be delayed. It's not going to be a situation where it's going to be here on Friday. The question is not whether we get to play the game. The concern is that we do have a Category 4 hurricane still out in the Caribbean."

Once a century

When Washington and Lee opens its football season Saturday at Alfred University, it will mark the first time the Generals have faced Alfred, as well as the first time since 1915 that W&L has played a football game in New York. The Generals played Cornell that year in Ithaca, N.Y., and haven't played a New York team at home or on the road since Fordham came to Lexington in 1979.

Local update

Salem High School grad Jason Buster, a junior at Union College in Barboursville, Ky., was named NAIA special-teams player of the week after averaging 43.3 yards per punt in a 42-22 loss to Lambuth (Tenn.) University. Buster also won the award last year, when he was named third-team NAIA All-American by Don Hansen's National Weekly Football Gazette.