VMI Cyber Corps

Alumni and Friends of VMI:

Cyber Corps Numbers: 507

VMI Football:
Closer but no cigar.

VMI remains mired deep in cellar's market / Keydets
can't handle lowly Wofford
WOFFORD 42 VMI 20

Sunday, October 11, 1998

BY SEAN RYAN
Times-Dispatch Correspondent

LEXINGTON -- For the first time in a month, Virginia Military Institute
appeared to be playing on an even field with its opponent.

After dropping the past four
games to four ranked teams by an average margin of 44-10, the Keydets
welcomed Wofford, their fellow Southern Conference cellar-dwellers, for
a date at Alumni Memorial Field.

The result was much the same.

The Terriers, behind 327 yards rushing, handed VMI its 17th consecutive
Division I loss with a 42-20 beating before a crowd of 6,541.

"It's very disappointing because regardless of what people think, we
think we can win every game," Keydets receiver Teray Frost said. "This
hurts -- especially when you lose a game we could have won. I know we
could have won that game."

Early VMI ineptness prevented that.

After the Keydets took a 3-0 lead on Mike Harris' 34-yard field goal on
their first possession, they were held without a first down the rest of
the first half.

The Terriers (1-3 Southern Conference, 2-3) mustered only 47 yards in
the first quarter but got a lift from backup quarterback Travis Wilson
entering the second. Wilson directed Wofford's option-based running game
to three consecutive scores and a 21-3 lead at the midway point.

"We left our defense on the field entirely too long in the first half,"
Keydets coach Ted Cain said. "You have to look at yourselves. We have to
do a much better job of getting this team ready to play."

Wilson hit Bryan Davis with a 36-yard pass play that set up Tony
Hudson's touchdown run for the Terriers' first score. Wilson and Davis,
who quarterbacked Wofford to a 23-13 come-from-behind win against the
Keydets last year, tag-teamed to set up score No. 2 when they converted
a fourth and 4 from the VMI 22 with a 10-yard completion. The Terriers
converted again on fourth down the next series from the 5, and two plays
later, Miles Lane scored the first of his three TDs. Wofford was 4 for 5
on fourth down.

"Before the game, he [Wofford coach Mike Ayers] said if it's fourth and
10 on our 2, we're going for it," said Davis, who added a 35-yard TD
catch in the second half. "We're just a better team when we attack. When
we're passive, we lose."

The Keydets, whose only win came against Division II Lenoir-Rhyne, did
most of the attacking to start the second half.

VMI backup QB Aaron Mitchell, who replaced former Lee-Davis standout
Robbie Chenault after the Keydets' 68-yard first quarter, settled down
after Davis' score made the score 28-3. He hit Frost in stride on a
hitch-and-go for a 69-yard TD -- the second-longest pass play for VMI
this decade -- to get the Keydets to 28-10. His 21-yard strike to tight
end Tom Boyer (Douglas Freeman High) made the score 35-17.

"I started calming down," said Mitchell, whose 264 yards were the most
by a VMI QB since Tony Scales threw for 284 yards against Marshall in
1992. "I have faith in my line. I'm going to sit back and try to pick
them apart."

Another Harris field goal gave the
Keydets hope, trailing 35-20 with 10:22 to play. But VMI went
three-and-out on its next possession, and Carl Wright sealed the game
with a late score.

"I felt we started to put it together," said Andre Curtis, who
registered a career-high 23 tackles.

After being outgained 209-80 in the first half, the Keydets netted 203
yards to Wofford's 199 in the second half and looked better than a team
0-4 in the conference and 1-5 overall.

"We scared them," Frost said. "We came out hard at them. We pounded them
for a while. They knew we could beat them."

Wofford··············0 21 14 7 -- 42
VMI···················3 0 7 10 -- 20
First Quarter

VMI -- FG Harris 34, 12:09

Second Quarter

Wof -- Hudson 4 run (Martin kick), 12:55

Wof -- Lane 4 run (Martin kick), 6:24

Wof -- Lane 2 run (Martin kick), 3:14

Third Quarter

Wof -- Davis 35 pass from Thompson (Martin kick), 12:20

VMI -- Frost 69 pass from Mitchell (Harris kick), 8:04

Wof -- Lane 3 run (Martin kick), 3:55

Fourth Quarter

VMI -- Boyer 21 pass from Mitchell (Harris kick), 14:29

VMI -- FG Harris 35, 10:22

Wof -- Wright 1 run (Martin kick), :58

A -- 6,541.


Wof VMI

First downs························· 21 12

Rushes-yards························· 77-345 26-76

Passing yards························· 81 312

Passes························· 3-4-0 12-28-2

Return yards························· 61 15

Punts-avg.························· 5-34 5-35

Fumbles-lost························· 2-0 2-1

Penalties-yards························ 7-59 6-61

Time of possession················ 39:02 20:58

Redshirts?: In the last couple weeks I've had a couple folks ask me why VMI doesn't redshirt its rat football players. Not that I'm the authority on VMI football or anything, but I decided to ask around. Seems that VMI does redshirt some of the rat players and has done so for a number of years. It does not, however, house fifth year seniors outside of barracks like I've heard is done at some other places (Citadel??). If anyone can provide further clarification, I'd appreciate it.

Hazing Update: Here is the status of the hazing incident involving three VMI cadets.

Judge rules 3 cadets should stand trial /
Virginia's anti-hazing law not too vague, jurist finds

Friday, October 9, 1998

BY REX BOWMAN
Times-Dispatch Staff Writer

Three Virginia Military Institute cadets could become the first college
students in memory to be prosecuted under the state's anti-hazing
statute after a Rockbridge County judge used an unabridged dictionary to
determine the law is not too vague.

Circuit Judge George E. Honts III, responding to a defense attorney's
complaint that Virginia law does not properly define hazing, conceded
the decades-old statute is "unartfully written," but said a person of
average intelligence could catch the law's drift.

The cadets should stand trial, he ruled. In his six-page ruling mailed
to attorneys this week, Honts said he couldn't find a clear definition
of the word "hazing" in the dictionary generally used by the court,
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, but he found a legally adequate
interpretation in an unabridged volume, Webster's Third New
International Dictionary.

That dictionary defines the word haze as "to intimidate by physical
punishment."

Defense attorney Tommy Spencer of Lexington was vexed by the judge's
ruling, arguing that Hont's reliance on an unabridged dictionary proves
that the term, and consequently the statute itself, is only vaguely
understood.

"If we've got to go to an unabridged dictionary to find a definition
that works, [do] we expect the average man of average intelligence to
track down unabridged dictionaries to understand?" Spencer said.

Spencer's clients are accused of hazing George Wade Jr. of Henrico
County last year by striking him on the buttocks with coat-hangers and
belts. The three cadets, who were

suspended, are Jonathan Gonzales of Mechanicsville, Thomas Michael
Upshaw of Caroline County and Charles Travers Clemons of Richmond.

Honts not only rejected Spencer's claim that the 70-year-old statue is
vague, but also shot down the argument that the law gives undue power to
the presidents of Virginia colleges. The anti-hazing law has generally
been interpreted to mean that university presidents -- in VMI's case,
Superintendent Josiah Bunting III -- must first determine that a hazing
has occurred before a prosecutor can bring charges.

Spencer argued that the law unconstitutionally usurps the power of
commonwealth's attorneys.

Honts, though, replied that the issue is not important unless the
commonwealth's attorney complains. Honts also noted that, in this case,
Bunting never issued a finding of hazing: Special prosecutor Michael
Irvine of Buena

Vista took up the case only after Wade's parents complained.

Spencer's third major argument, that the three VMI cadets are being
unfairly singled out, also went nowhere with Honts.

The judge noted that his law clerk, along with Spencer's and Irvine's
offices, failed to find a single instance of anyone ever being
prosecuted under the anti-hazing law; but he added that "infrequency of
use of a statutory tool does not equate to selectiveness in
prosecution."

Spencer disagreed: "If I had a client charged with adultery, I'd
certainly argue that he's been singled out, since no one has been
charged with adultery for years."

In 1993, a Virginia Tech senior was charged with hazing, a misdemeanor,
but was not prosecuted on the charge. In a deal with prosecutors, he
pleaded guilty to trespassing and four counts of providing alcohol to
minors.

No trial date has been set for the three VMI cadets.

The Revised Breakout A Done Deal? Maybe Not: I hear that the proposed march to New Market may have run into some logisitical problems. Specifically, what to do about the athletes that would need to be excused? Also, would everyone be physically able to make an 80 mile march over four days? That's a pretty daunting task even for the most physically fit. Stay tuned. More later.

Rooming Arrangements: As usual the rats are rooming by company. However, it seems that the thirds are also rooming by company. From what I hear the seconds, thirds and rats will be rooming by company next year. Seems the firsts will always have the option to room with others outside their respective company. Interesting.

That's it for this week.

Yours in the Spirit,
RB Lane '75

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