The Roanoke Times | File 1996

Ex-Virginia Tech quarterback Jim Druckenmiller played his last college game against Nebraska in the Orange Bowl.

Ask Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer about his lasting memories of the 1996 Orange Bowl, and he will talk about how a Nebraska juggernaut took his on-the-rise program to school.

The Cornhuskers' lesson wasn't kind, but it was certainly educational for the Hokies.

"I thought they taught us what it took to be big time that night," said Beamer, recalling his club's 41-21 loss that New Year's Eve in Miami.

"That game showed us that you need to develop depth. I think we hung in there with our first group, but that second and third group that Nebraska had ... they kinda just keep pounding you and wear you down, and then they get you. You're a step slow, and instead of 4-yard play or a 3-yard play, it's a 14-yard play, and that kinda got us at the end."

Despite not having nearly as many horses as Tom Osborne's Huskers, the 16-point underdog Hokies made things interesting most of the night. Tech trailed only 24-21 late in the third quarter before power-packed Nebraska pulled away by scoring 17 points in the game's final 15-plus minutes.

"The game was much closer than the score indicated," said Jim Druckenmiller, still vividly recalling his final game as Tech's quarterback. "They just kept bring swarms of new offensive linemen in the game. Especially in the fourth quarter, I felt bad for our defensive line. It seemed like they had three lineups and they just kept rolling players in every series or every third or fourth play, just keeping them all fresh."

Current Tech assistant strength and conditioning coach Jamel Smith was a redshirt freshman linebacker who played that night. One thing he remembers most was the endless line of guys wearing red that streamed onto the field for pregame warmups.

"They just kept pouring out of the locker room," Smith said. "To us, it looked like 200 ... 300 players ... it seemed like to us like it was practically the whole state of Nebraska on that sideline that night. Man, they had a lot of players."

Tonight, nearly 12 years later, Tech (3-1) gets another shot at Nebraska (3-0). While these Huskers aren't nearly as vaunted as Osborne's bunch that went 49-2 and won three national titles from 1994-97, there's no neutral site for this meeting.

Tonight's contest will be played at 81,067-seat Memorial Stadium, which will sold out for an NCAA-record 293rd consecutive time.

The Hokies' program has arguably has passed the Huskers' since that '96 Orange Bowl meeting. In the dozen years since, Tech has won 10 more games (109-99). That includes a decisive 42-27 edge the past four years, a period in which Nebraska took a major nosedive under Bill Callahan, who had two losing seasons -- 5-6 in 2004 and 5-7 last season. Prior to that, Nebraska's last losing campaign came during the Kennedy administration (1961).

Callahan's successor, Bo Pelini, has managed to re-stoke the fire in the program during his first year on the job. Husker Nation is revved up again about a club that's favored to beat a Tech team that ranks as the youngest squad in Beamer's 22 years and is still trying to find its way.

That said, the Hokies sound much more excited than intimidated about the assignment.

Many of the Tech players recall seeing Nebraska on televisions as youngsters.

"Yeah, I remember Eric Crouch [NU QB from 1998-2001], seeing all those people out there going crazy," Tech senior center Ryan Shuman said. "They sold out the spring game this year. So it's pretty high magnitude, so we're going to try to go in there and shut 'em all up."

Hokies senior defensive end Orion Martin remembers watching Tommie Frazier, quarterback for Nebraska's back-to-back unbeaten national championship clubs in 1994-95.

"Playing in this type of game, it's so important, you're on the road and your backs are up against the wall," Martin said. "So it's going to be a big statement for our program to beat a big-time football team like Nebraska."

Druckenmiller, who resides and works in Memphis, said he will be somewhere among the "Sea of Red" tonight. He will be pulling hard for his alma mater.

"While I think [Tech] has made some progression in having more depth, which we didn't have enough of in '96, I don't feel so good about the depth of this particular team," Druckenmiller said. "We just lost so many guys and we're starting a lot of new kids.

"Man, I sure hope these boys can take 'em down, though. I took a beating from those guys in that bowl game. I remember waking up really sore the next day and there were a lot of bruises."

Druckenmiller then paused and broke into laughter.

"It was funny because when I went out to the beach the next day, people were asking 'did you get into a fight the night before?'" he continued. "I said, 'yeah, I was out with the whole defensive squad of Nebraska the night before.'"