Seminoles get last laugh on Hokies’ Moore

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2000 | 11:04 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS -- Virginia Tech defensive end Corey Moore's bark turned out to be much worse than his bite.

The Lombardi and Nagurski award winner, who had 17 sacks this past season, cussed out reporters and cameramen in the days leading up to Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl contest and boasted that the Hokies would be the ones celebrating at the end.

But the explosive defensive end finished the 46-29 loss to Florida State with a grand total of one tackle and no sacks.

Moore also made a key mental mistake on the first offensive play of the second half. Florida State quarterback Chris Weinke threw what was an obvious backward lateral to Peter Warrick that bounced off Warrick's hands. But Moore stopped and watched the ball roll on the ground for a second or two even though the officials hadn't blown their whistles. Warrick eventually ran over and knocked the fumble out of bounds at the Seminoles' 6.

Had Moore been more alert, he could have easily scooped up the loose ball and possibly scored a touchdown.

"I feel very satisfied," he said walking off the field. "I was disappointed that our special teams let us down in the first half. That normally doesn't happen. But I was happy with our effort out there."

"You can't play with your mouth, you play with your heart," Warrick said afterward when reminded of Moore's comments. "That's what we did tonight."

* HOLD THE PRESSES: Don't be alarmed if you get your copy of Sports Illustrated a day later in the mail this week.

In a rare move, the magazine delayed its normal Monday night publication deadline a day so that it could get in a game story on Tuesday night's national championship game.

* WIRE TO WIRE: By winning Tuesday night, Florida State became the first team in the history of the Associated Press to hold the No. 1 ranking from the preseason poll all the way to the end of the season.

Nebraska was No. 1 throughout the regular season in 1971 and USC in 1972, but they were either not No. 1 in the preseason poll or a game was played before the preseason poll was released.

* SEMINOLE NATION: It looked like a meeting of the National Football League's Player Association on the Florida State sidelines on Tuesday night.

A number of FSU alums made the trip to New Orleans to show support for their school including Derrick Alexander (Vikings), Peter Boulware (Baltimore), Derrick Brooks (Tampa Bay), Sam Cowart (Buffalo), Warrick Dunn (Tampa Bay), Marvin Jones (Jets) and Andre Wadsworth (Arizona).

* BATTER UP: Making the tackle on the second half kickoff for Virginia Tech was sophomore backup defensive end Derek Piniella.

Piniella's father is Seattle Mariners' manager Lou Piniella, who was expected to attend the game.

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer also went to school with Texas Rangers manager Johnny Oates.

"I try and get to Seattle once a year to see the Rangers and Mariners play," Beamer said.

* NO MASCOT: Florida State's mascot, Chief Osceola, was a no-show at the Sugar Bowl, continuing a trend that dates to the 1990 Blockbuster Bowl.

Reason? FSU told the real Seminole Nation that the mascot would never be commercialized -- appearing in commercials or car dealerships -- "out of respect to them" according to sports information director Rob Wilson.

Evidently those constant tomahawk chops are OK, though.

* POLITICALLY CORRECT: Virginia Tech may have lost its shot at a national title but the Hokies at least got the respect of President Clinton.

Clinton called the Tech locker room afterward to console them.

"I just took a call from the President of the United States," Hokies' coach Frank Beamer said. "When he takes time to call the team that lost, it shows that he really admired the way this football team played all year and I appreciate that."