Richmond Times-Dispatch from Richmond, Virginia • C1

1 1 128TD2 YD 1C 2star sports BLACK ONLY 1 1 128TD2 YD 1C ZALLCALL 112704 SECTION lUdjmonb Simes-Bispatrij Sunday, November 28, 2004 jBY Mm More Sports D1 U. VA. vs. JL No. 11 Virginia Tech 24, No.

16 Virginia 10 Tech High With their conquest of Virginia, Hokies will meet Miami for BCS bowl berth 1. 1 DEAN HOmilKHLmOS-DBPAT Filling in for injured starter Mike Imoh, Virginia lech tailback Cedric Humes rushed for 95 yards and a touchdown on IS carries in the Hokies' triumph over Virginia at Lane Stadium in Blacks burg. His 37-yard scoring run with 5:08 left iced the game for the 1 lth-ranked Hokies. Once unwanted by ACC, Hokies earned vindication mm BY MIKE HARRIS Times-Dispatch Staff Writer blacks burg Who says there isn't an ACC championship game this season? Though the official ACC tide tilt doesnt start until next season, Virginia Tech and Miami, in their first year in the league BLACKS BURG The ACC didnt want these guys. Didn't want them in 1953, didn't want them two springs ago, didnt want them if even they said pretty please with a Hokie Bird on top.

Too rural, the ACC har- rumphed. Not enough TV sets and latte stands. Too agricultural, too dicey to bus to in the dead of winter, too much marketing overlap with the league's outpost in Charlottesville, too this, too that Too threatening? That wasn't a con INSIDE PAGE C2: Missed opportunities come back to haunt Virginia. PAGE C3: Columnist John Markon writes that big games from Cedric Humes and Josh Hyman couldnt have come at a better time for Virginia Tech. In short, the Miami-Tech game is winner take all for the ACCs biggest bowL The loser will fall to the Gator Bowl or the Peach BowL "We got one big one to go," said Tech coach Frank Beamer, whose team has won seven straight "We're going to enjoy this one.

ft is a great win for this program, these kids, our coaching staff we can make a BCS bowl and we can have this title outright If 8 going to be a large, large order. I think this football team looks forward to challenges." Said senior defensive tackle Jim Davis, "Just when you think the games don't get much bigger, you turn around next week and have an enormous one down in South Beach, ft" not going to be easy. I've been there twice and got my tail handed to me twice. Miami, you never know what you're going to get with them. Well get their best shot ItTl be a different environment, but we've been up for the challenge all year long." ft would not be possible for Tech if it hadnt been able to avenge last year's loss to Virginia.

The Hokies have now won five of the past six against the Cavaliers, and they retook possession of the Commonwealth Cup. Last year, Virginia did what it wanted on offense to the tune of 458 SEE HOKIES, PAGE C5 Bowl Picture Hie University of Virginia left the field at Lane Stadium yesterday uncertain about its bowl destination, while Virginia Tech remained in contention for a berth in the Bowl Championship Series. Because its exam schedule conflicts with the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, which will be held Dec. 21, University of Virginia President John T. Cas-teen HI said the Cavaliers would decline an invitation to that game.

Four other minor bowls could offer U.Va. a slot. Virginia Tech faces Miami on Saturday for the ACC championship, with the winner getting a BCS berth, likely the Sugar Bowl, and the loser foiling to the Gator Bowl or Peach BowL Details, Page C4 after shifting from the Big East, will play a game Saturday in Miami that works pretty much the same way. Thanks to the 1 lth-ranked Hokies' 24-10 victory over No. 16 Virginia yesterday before 65,115 at Lane Stadium, the implications of the Tech-Miami gamp are simple.

If the Hokies (6-1, 9-2) win, they are outright ACC champions and will represent the league in the Bowl Bob Upper Guess what? This maroon-and-or-ange-headed stepchild still can play some serious football The Hokies proved the point opening night when they hung tough with No. 1 Southern CaL They dk-to'd that thrust by taking their show on the road to such slippery slopes as Chapel Hill and Atlanta and holding serve. And they rammed home the message yesterday when they hammer-locked Virginia in the second half, got major efforts on offense from Bryan Randall, Josh Hyman and Cedric Humes and cruised past the Cavaliers 24-10. They sit atop the ACC all by then-lonesome, in case you hadnt noticed. Whip Miami in the Orange Bowl on Saturday, and they rule this league.

At worst, they're co-champs. At bottom, they fed vindicated. "It hurts a little to know people didnt think that much of this program," said Hokies linebacker Darryl Tapp. "We had a chip on our shoulder, ft played a major part in this team coming together." ft Tech won this baby in the fourth quarter, U.Va. maybe lost it in SEE LLP PER, PAGE C4 point of view sideration.

Not after three unglamor-ous seasons all but erased the national-power designation from Virginia Tech's calling card. In the end, the ACC swallowed hard and permitted Tech to be shoe-horned into the club (in Blacksburg town, they love the guv'nor, woo, woo, woo). And all the forecasters thought so much of the new interlopers on the block that they were picked to finish sixth in the league to be, in other words, marginal. Championship Series almost certainly in the Sugar BowL If the Hurricanes (5-2, 8-2) idle this weekend win, they will be trhchampi-ons of the league along with Tech and Florida State (6-2, Miami would then get the BCS slot based on a higher finish in the BCS rankings. QUARTER-BY-QUARTER BREAKDOWN, PAGE C2 GAME STATISTICS, PAGE C4.