Defensive Coordinator Phil Elmassian: The Key to Tech's Football Turnaround?

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Editor's Note: Please enjoy this look back at VT football from our September 1994 issue.

The Virginia Tech Hokies ­galvanized by a season-end­ing, three-game winning streak last fall, including a 45-20 clubbing of favored Indiana in the Independence Bowl-enter the 1994 football season amid much pomp and circumstance.

The team, which finished 21st and 20th in two national polls in '93, is expected to be selected no lower than second in the Big East Conference and in the top 25 among Division I-A teams by preseason pundits. Numerous national sports magazines have given Virginia Tech plenty of ink, and respect, in their annual college preseason football predictions: 

Football News: This national publication picked Tech 12th, the highest ranking by any magazine doing preseason prognosticating. 

Also, quarterback Maurice DeShazo was selected seventh in early Heisman Tro­phy balloting and the Hokies were selected to be the most surprising team for 1994. 

Inside Sports: The Hokies are rated 21st in the country, second to Miami in the Big East Conference.

Sport Magazine has Tech rated the 23rd best team in the country.

Athlon selected Tech 22nd. In their compliation of the best players in the coun­try at their respective positions, linebacker Ken Brown, DeShazo and receiver Antonio Freeman all rated top-10 honors. In the magazine's Best of the Rest listing: sopho­more center Billy Conaty and sophomore safety Antonio Banks, Defensive MVP in the Independence Bowl, both made the list.

The Sporting News: The Hokies were rated the 25th best team in the country. Both DeShazo and Freeman made the pre­season All-Big East team. Defensive end Cornell Brown and Banks both made the second team.

Eight starters, including the front six, return from a big-play, swarming defense and six incumbents are back from an offen­sive juggernaut which averaged 36.4 points per game last campaign.

Quarterback DeShazo (197-sr.), who threw a school-record 22 touchdowns, is a viable Heisman Trophy candidate; Free­man (l 95-sr.) is a sure-handed, big-play receiver who can stretch defenses, hauling in 32 passes for 644 yards for an average of 20.1 yards per catch; and tailback Dwayne Thomas (206-jr.), is a Sunshine State product who rushed for 1,130 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Expectations are high. A gaudy 9-3 record, including a holiday bowl victory, invests a program with a certain cache.

Virginia Tech is loaded with talent. If all goes as expected, area TV viewers should get ample doses of the Hokies' exploits on ESPN' s splashy "Sportscenter."

As recently as 12 months ago, all was Following two consecutive losing sea­sons, an embattled head coach Frank Beamer, shuffled his coaching staff, appointing four new assistants.

Perhaps Beamer's most important hire was defensive coordinator and secondary coach Phil Elmassian, a gung-ho, Welles­ley, Mass., native who makes the Energizer Bunny look like he needs No Doz.

For Elmassian, who had spent the previ­ous two seasons at Syracuse, (where as defensive backfield coach he saw Orange­men defenders set a school record with 24 interceptions in '92), the hiring was a homecoming of sorts.

The 1974 William & Mary graduate had spent the 1985 and '86 seasons on former head coach Bill Dooley's staff, helping the Hokies secure a 25-24 victory over North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl. 

What Elmassian brought back to Vir­ginia Tech was a new drill-sergeant attitude and invaluable postseason experi­ence, having coached in five bowl games, including three ('87 All-American, '90 Cit­rus and '91 Sugar) while linebackers' coach (1987-'90) on George Welch's staff at the University of Virginia. He also par­ticipated in the '92 Hall of Fame game with the Orangemen.

"It wasn't a very hard decision to make as far as coming back to Tech," says Elmassian, who returned to Blacksburg shortly before Syracuse played in the '93 Fiesta Bowl against Colorado. "My.respect for Frank Beamer was instrumental in my decision. He's a first-class person and I was impressed with his commitment to the pro­gram, to the schooJ; to the players and to his staff. As far as I'm concerned, I have the best defensive coordinator's job in the country."

Syracuse head football coach Paul Pasqualoni, Elmassian's former employer (1991-92) sees his ex-secondary coach's return to Virginia Tech as a good marriage for the well-traveled teacher.

"Coach Elmassian is an excellent foot­ball coach because he has an outstanding knowledge of the game. He's been a lot of places, but he has a true love for that part of the country.

"Coach (Frank) Beamer has put togeth­er an excellent program and a solid staff. He gets quite a bit of credit. Coach Elmass­ian helped our defense have an NCAA interception record while he was here, so he knows what he's doing. He brings enthusi­am, knowledge and discipline to the field. He's intense and gets the kids to play hard. Tech is well-coached, solid on fundamen­tals and prepared. Elmassian is great at ana­lyzing talent and the placement of person­nel."

It has been widely reported by the media that one of Elmassian' s first decisions was to shelve the much-maligned wide-tackle six defense-a somewhat passive contain­and-read strategy-in favor of the more aggressive, big-play capabilities of the con­ventional 4-3. 

The successful implementation of this new defensive philosophy has earned Elmassian-and, by extension, the team­plaudits from the media, rival coaches, fans and, most importantly, the players them­selves.

Some observers, seeing Elmassian help engineer a dramatic turnaround of a some­what dispirited '92 squad which went 0-7-1 its final eight contests, have heralded the former Ferrum College defensive coordi­nator as a defensive guru.

Elmassian, now in his 21st year of coaching and in his ninth different job, scoffs at the idea. "I've said many times that criticism of the wide-tackle six, or any defense, is just an excuse for the losing that had been going on," says Elmassian, who fielded a defense last fall with only one starter returning to his original position. "I'd gone to watch the University of Washington practice and the defense they were employ­ing was so foreign I almost left after the first day.

"You tend to reject anything you don't initially understand," he continues. "But, gradually, I became a fan. I was impressed with the velocity the players brought to each play, the communication on the field and on down the line to the backup players, the confidence they had and the simplici­ty. It was like I'd seen the burning bush. I was transformed by this unique defense." 

Despite the success accorded his defense, Elmassian insists his squad was inconsistent through the first seven games and came up short of meeting expectations as a team.

"Our goals are no different this year than last," says Elmassian. "We want to have a winning record, win the Big East Confer­ence and go to a New Year's Day bowl game. Last year, we didn't win our confer­ence [4-3). We came in fourth place [behind W.Va., Miami and Boston Col­lege) and all our losses were in our confer­ence and on the road. You have to be able to win on the road in your conference if you want to take that next step forward."

According to Elmassian, the benefits of his tutelage came late in the '93 campaign. He insists there were warning signals his nascent philosophies had not taken hold yet in the minds of his players.

"In two different games, we surrendered over 600 yards [BC and Maryland) and West Virginia gained more than 200 yards on us on the ground. Everybody says we did a good job against Miami, holding them to only 21 points, but we should have had at least two safeties. We didn't con­vert opportunities," laments Elmassian, who coached under Lou Holtz IO years ago at Minnesota.

In his mind, the Rutgers game signalled more work-and communication-need­ed to be done.

In the seventh game of the season against the Scarlett Knights, Virginia Tech had its visitors down 49-21 going into the final period, ready to be locked, loaded and in their full and upright position for the flight back to New Jersey.

But the Hokies simply couldn't shift into overdrive and coast downhill. 

Instead, fueled by a pair of Tech fum­bles, Rutgers did a good impression of the San Francisco 49ers, scoring 21 unan­swered points in the final frame. The Hok­ies hung on by their collective fingernails (49-42), but Elmassian was not pleased.

Against Boston College, the Hokies defense surrendered six plays which totalled 250 yards. BC quarterback Glenn Foley put up some Dan Marino numbers, completing 21 of 29 passes for 448 yards. Earlier in the season against the Terrapins, Tech's defense again couldn't stand pros­perity. Despite a 35-14 halftime deficit, Maryland quarterback Todd Milanovich completed 29 of 52 aerials for 498 yards to make the contest interesting before Tech pulled away with 17 points in the fourth quarter for a steely 55-28 victory.

"On any level, whether it's college, high school or the pros, you win if your defense outplays their defense," notes Elmassian. "For us, things didn't click until the final three games when we scored three touch­downs of our own and controlled the offenses of Syracuse, Virginia and Indi­ana." 

This year, Elmassian, with his entire defensive line, two linebackers and Independence Bowl Defensive MVP Anto­nio Banks (191-so.) giving his corps an extremely experienced flavor, had reason to grin at spring practice. Anchoring his rock-ribbed defense will be All-America candidate Ken Brown (233-sr.), who had 113 tackles, including 61 solo tackles; Cornell Brown (228- soph.), the most-ballyhooed recruit to sign with Tech in many years, who wound up with 57 tackles; J.C. Price (283-jr.), a con­verted end who is burly and nasty and could play the villain in the next Termina­tor movie; and George DelRicco (220-jr.), a contact-seeking missile at linebacker who participated in 103 tackles, good for second place in '93.

The biggest hole Elmassian will have to fill is the void left by the graduated Tyronne Drakeford, a three-year starter at cornerback and Tech' s second all-time interception leader (16) who was selected in the second round of the NFL April draft by the 49ers.

"Tyronne was a great talent whose best days are definitely ahead of him," says Elmassian. "We're going to fill the corner­back spots with William Yarborough (163- jr.) and Larry Green (159-soph.). Both saw action as starters last year and both looked good in spring practice."

The Hokies' schedule again looks formi­dable. West Virginia is expected to be a contender for the Big East crown and Miami, a four-time national champion (1983, '87, '89, '91), will be looking to rebound from what was, for them, a dismal season. Syracuse, after having had a string of seven consecutive bowl appearances snapped last season, looks to improve. Archrival Virginia will visit Nov. 19.

"Our focus is on improvement. If you focus only on winning, then you're setting yourself up for a disappointment," says Elmassian. "If you lose one game, then you get set back. That can throw you off kilter for the season. We're better and improved over last season. Does that trans­late into more wins for us? I don't know. I'd like to think it does."

That said, Elmassian turns toward the oblong conference table and resumes studying his sheaf of papers. The chalk­board already is overflowing with diagrams and notations. The videotape machine stands at the ready.

It's well before lunchtime. Supposedly, the offseason.

But, despite returning most of his starters, Elmassian is hard at work. He's worried, for sure. But, he's proud of his kids.

"We accomplished two years' worth of work in one year last year," Elmassian mentions. "We've only been in the winning business for one year. We set our goals, make a commitment and work toward it. We want to get better and meet our goals. Anything less and we've done a disservice to last year's team and what they accom­plished."

Elmassian says this as much to himself as to anyone else. 

That Devastating BC Loss: The Turning Point For A Program? 

Virginia Tech defensive coordina­tor Phil Elmassian will never for­get the ninth game of last season. 

In the locker room following the game, a demoralizing 48-34 hatchet job by Big East Conference rival Boston College, there were orange peels, disfig­ured Gatorade cups, dirty, discarded adhesive tape and the putrid smell of a huge, morale-deflating loss.

A confident, perhaps cocky Hokie team had flown into the Eagles' nest sporting a 6-2 record, visions of a holi­day bowl game in some exotic warm­-weather locale dancing in their collective heads. But something happened. Elmassian's defense got shipsawed.

BC quarterback Glenn Foley connect­ed on 21 of 29 passes for 448 yards. The team rang up a total of 617 yards.

Elmassian's defense was leaking worse than a rusted water pipe and he knew it. Tech had surrendered more valuable property than the French did to Lewis and Clark.

"All three of those games [Maryland, Rutgers and BC) were three different situations," sighs Elmassian, who has heard the criticisms before. "It wasn't just a case of the same thing happening over and over. The BC game was just a case of a bad overall game plan that was poorly executed. After their offense had scored a couple of times, I said to myself on the sideline that it'd be good if we could hold them to about 60 points. We'd had a poor week of practice and just weren't ready for the game. There's plenty of blame to go around."

And what did head coach Frank Beamer say to him after the game?

"Absolutely nothing. He was totally supportive," reminisces Elmassian, who spent the 1991, '92 seasons at Syracuse as defensive backfield coach. "I would've fired myself if I could have. It was very disappointing. But, if we go on to put a number of winning seasons together, go to some bowl games and put together a winning tradition, we'll look back at the BC game as a turning point. We asked the tough questions: Who are we? What do we want? We had to take a good, long look at ourselves."

After that disheartening contest, the Hokies rebounded to best Syracuse, Vir­ginia and Indiana in the Independence Bowl to complete a successful 9-3 cam­paign. -TW

RANDOM ELMASSIANISMS:

"We bring our lunchpails and go to work."

"If you're ripe, you rot; if you're green, you're still growing."

"You have to go through a little fire to get steel." 

"Responsibility comes with winning."

"No one player or coach takes the burden of one play for losing a game. It's what goes on the other 59 minutes that determines the outcome."