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Thursday, October 19, 2000

Pitt has gotten some attention for its strong start, but Temple has taken the title of most improved team in the league.

The Owls, who won two games last season, are 4-3 this year and won their first conference game in three attempts Saturday by thrashing Rutgers, 48-14.

Temple has reached a lot of benchmarks. It has four wins for the first time since 1990. It has exceeded 400 yards of offense four times. It won at Rutgers for the first time since 1988, by the team's largest margin of victory since 1982.

"It's kind of hard to imagine that we're already going into our eighth game," third-year Coach Bobby Wallace said. "We've played a lot of football."

Temple's brightest star has been sophomore tailback Tanardo Sharps, who has four 100-yard rushing games and leads the Big East with an average of 113.1 yards a game.

This week, the Owls are host to No. 4 Miami (4-1, 2-0). It is Temple's homecoming and its first game of the season at Veterans Stadium.

The Owls have six home games, but the first three were played at older, smaller Franklin Field on the University of Pennsylvania campus.

"We have a lot of young guys who haven't played [at the Vet] yet," Wallace said, explaining that the team picked a tough opponent like Miami for homecoming only because it has no other home games in October.

"At least, the fans will get to see a great team."

Although it's doubtful the Owls can hang tough with a team as strong as Miami's, the Hurricanes recognize that Temple is better than last year, when Miami won, 55-0.

"I felt like before the season started that Temple was going to be one of the more improved teams, and they are dramatically making improvement," Miami Coach Butch Davis said.

"They've got guys on defense that can run, a very active and aggressive offensive line, and Sharps is really pretty electrifying."

Another Tech star

There's quarterback Michael Vick. Everyone knew about him coming into the season.

Then tailback Lee Suggs started to get a lot of attention.

Now a third member of Virginia Tech's offense is blossoming.

Junior flanker Andre Davis put on a show last Thursday night in the No. 2 Hokies' 48-20 victory over West Virginia on ESPN.

Davis scored three touchdowns three different ways -- on a run, a catch and a punt return -- in a span of 6:06 in the third quarter to lift Virginia Tech from a 14-14 tie to a 34-14 lead.

Davis leads the nation with a punt-return average of 23.2 yards and is the only player who has returned three punts for touchdowns.

Game of the week

Syracuse (3-3, 1-1) can't waste any time licking its wounds after a 20-13 loss at Boston College. The Orangemen have an ESPN date at home with second-ranked Virginia Tech (6-0, 4-0) at 7 p.m. Saturday.

"We've already moved on," Orangemen tight end Graham Manly said. "We're playing the No. 2 team in the country. We can't dwell in the past."

Not last week, and not last year. Syracuse lost at Virginia Tech, 62-0, in 1999 and then lost four of its final five games, including a humiliating defeat at Rutgers.

Orangemen quarterback Troy Nunes -- who helped beat Pitt the week before with two third-down touchdown passes after long scrambles -- struggled against Boston College, throwing four interceptions.

Nunes still has his coach's support, though.

"Troy is our quarterback, so we're going to play with Troy," Paul Pasqualoni said.

"Nunes had some trouble last weekend, but I think he was the most accurate passer in the league until then," Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer said.

The Hokies need to win to preserve their hopes of getting to the national championship game for the second year in a row. A lopsided victory would help in the Bowl Championship Series standings, which will be released for the first time this season next week.

The Hokies could set a league record with their 13th consecutive conference victory, but they are 0-5 under Coach Frank Beamer at the Carrier Dome.

Quote of the week

Temple Coach Bobby Wallace after the Owls' victory at Rutgers:

"Had we not won, even though we have improved, we would have been back to zero around the country. I was very scared of this game. It turned out better than I thought it would."