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Friday, December 28, 2007

Ex-Hokies beat writer marvels at VT success

Kerkhoff talks Tech, Kansas, Texas Tech

By Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty

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It’s a shame that Blair Kerkhoff won’t be covering the Orange Bowl game between Virginia Tech and Kansas.

Nobody has seen both programs through harder times.

Kerkhoff came to The Roanoke Times out of Appalachian State in 1981 and served as prep editor before taking over the Virginia Tech beat.

Kerkhoff covered Frank Beamer’s first two Tech football teams before he and his wife, Karen, moved to Kansas.

Actually, Karen moved to Kansas first to pursue her career as a horticulturist and Blair followed in the spring of 1989. He started out as a part-timer for the Kansas City Star and had a meteoric rise to his current position as national college writer.

(Kerkhoff probably wouldn’t use the adjective, “meteoric.”)

In any case, Kerkhoff was kind enough to call Thursday and respond to a voice message I had left six days earlier. My intention was to ask him about Kansas but he wanted to talk about the Hokies.

“My perspective on Tech is different from a lot of people’s because I covered [Beamer’s] first two teams,” Kerkhoff said, “and those were abysmal teams. After the second year, I thought there was no way he was going to last.”

Beamer’s first team went 2-9 in 1987 and 3-8 in 1988.

“They weren’t just losing,” Kerkhoff said. “I remember a game at Tulane; it was actually decent at halftime, within a touchdown, but they ended up giving up 57 in the SuperDome [in a 57-38 loss] and I thought it was one of the worst performances I’d ever seen a football team have.”

Kerkhoff remembers another time when Jamel Agemy and Carter Wiley had gotten in hot water and Kerkhoff found himself in Beamer’s office with the players, the players’ attorneys and a Tech attorney.

“They were trying to negotiate what was going to be put in the paper,” he said. “I can’t remember what it was all about.

“Here’s a guy [Beamer] who came from a Division I-AA program and looked to be over his head. I just think Tech made a brilliant decision after five years to stay with him.

“You could make the case that they’re [the Hokies] the most consistently successful program in the country right now, with what’s happened to Florida State and Nebraska. Southern Cal basically is more of a Johnny-come-lately and Ohio State has had its down years.

“It’s just amazing to see where they are from where I saw them close up, 20 years ago.”

WHAT ABOUT KANSAS? At one time, Kerkhoff was the Jayhawks’ beat writer. This season, when the Star’s lead columnists were traveling with the NFL Chiefs, Kerkhoff would write columns on the hot college teams at Missouri and Kansas.

He saw the Jayhawks four times.

“First of all, it’s an incredible stroke of good timing for them,” said Kerkhoff of the Jayhawks’ success. “They do have good players. It’s the most talent this program has had since the early ‘90s.”

Two of Kansas’ defensive linemen of that era, Dana Stubblefield and Gilbert Brown, had illustrious NFL careers as nose tackles.

“Glen Mason built some really good teams in the early ‘90s,” Kerkhoff said. “This Kansas team is a collection of the most talent they’ve had in the program since then and having scheduled for success this year. They made no bones about it.

“[Mark] Mangino came into the season needing to go to a bowl game. The athletic director went on the record in August, saying that 6-6 wasn’t going to cut it this year. That’s what they were last year, when they didn’t get to a bowl game.

“Lew Perkins [the AD] says, ‘He’s [Mangino] got to do better than 6-6,’ and so they scheduled for four non-conference wins, and they got those. But they got them the way nobody would have expected. They beat the hell out of Central Michigan, which won a bowl game last year, and Toledo, which had beaten them [the Jayhawks] last year.

“They got to 4-0 and then they start the Big 12 schedule and end up playing three teams in the Big 12 that are on the verge of coaching changes -- Texas A&M, Nebraska and Baylor. They get those teams when they’re really struggling, but, again, these programs all beat Kansas last year.

“They don’t play Oklahoma or they don’t play Texas in the regular season, so they kind of get a break with the conference schedule. But, then, their confidence soars and they get on this major roll and get to 11-0.”

One of the keys, obviously, has been 5-foot-10, 200-pound sophomore quarterback Todd Reesing. Reesing, who looks like the prototype VMI quarterback whom Kerkhoff may have covered in the mid-1980s, has passed for 3,259 yards and 32 touchdowns.

“He could at play VMI,” Kerkhoff said. “He’s an undersized guy from Austin, Texas, who Mack Brown didn’t want and Oklahoma didn’t want. Half the Kansas team is guys from Tech who Mack and [Bob] Stoops didn’t want.

“Kansas didn’t even know what it had in this guy when he came. Mangino reluctantly gave him a scholarship. They redshirted him last year because they thought they had their guy, Kerry Meier, who was inconsistent and didn’t win big games for them.

“Finally, in the ninth game, they played Colorado in Lawrence [Kan]. At halftime of this kid’s ninth game, they take [Reesing’s] redshirt off. They tell him to get ready; they’re down 9-0 and this kid comes out and rallies them to a win.

“He didn’t start the rest of the year but played. They called it a tossup [between Reesing and Meier] after the spring, but you could tell this guy was going to be the guy. ‘He’s really capable’ is the best way to put it. He’s capable beyond his size.”

KERKHOFF DOESN’T find it inconceivable that Kansas could beat the Hokies.

“Tech’s better,” Kerkhoff said. “They just are. How many years in a row is this a bowl game for them, 15 or something? Kansas has never played in consecutive bowl games in the history of the program and they haven’t played in a game like this in forever.

“In their one major national spotlight game, they were down 21-0 before they even knew what hit them [against Missouri in the Big 12 championship game]. All the signs point to Virginia Tech just being the better team and the better program and having more experience in these games.

“But, I’ve picked against Kansas probably four times this year in our weekly picks. I’d think, ‘All right, now, this is the week it’s going to happen. They’re going to Texas A&M and they’re going to wilt in front of 85,000,’ or, ‘They’re going to Oklahoma State, a good, athletic team, and it’s going to happen this week.’

“And, it never happened.”

KERKHOFF WILL BE covering Big 12 champion Oklahoma against West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl, but he’ll be keeping his eye on the Orange Bowl, as well as the Gator Bowl matchup between Virginia and Texas Tech.

“That will be a great game,” Kerkhoff said. “I think that’s a really good game. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to talk to [Mike Leach] yet.”

In fact, I had spoken to Leach, the Red Raiders’ eclectic head coach, earlier in the week.

“He’s unbelievable,” Kerkhoff said. “If he were in the East -- if he were coaching in the Big East or the ACC -- he’d be a media star. He’s terrific to talk to on the phone. It may be midnight, but he’ll always call you back.”

The Leach story I hadn’t heard concerned Leach and billionaire Donald Trump.

“You know how ABC gets celebrities to announce the lineups. Well, the night they played Oklahoma, Donald Trump introduced Texas Tech,” Kerkhoff said. “[Leach] apparently had struck up a relationship with Trump.

“He was in New York a couple of years ago and just on a lark said, ‘I’m going to call this guy; I’m going to call Trump.’ And, Trump took his call. They had lunch and Trump just fell in love with the guy. They’re buddies in every sense.”
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