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COPYRIGHT 2005 South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Byline: Randall Mell
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ Those outsiders are trying to get inside again.
When you think of college football's traditional powers, Virginia Tech doesn't leap to mind.
The program doesn't have the pedigree of USC, Texas, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Georgia, Alabama and other teams enjoying quick starts this season.
The Hokies don't have the history to command that depth of respect ... Yet.
Virginia Tech seems nouveau rich. That surprising breakthrough into its first national title game against Florida State in 1999 almost seemed flukish. The Hokies, after all, went 36 years without being ranked in the Associated Press poll (1957-93). Before Michael Vick led them in that magical season, they had cracked the AP Top 10 poll just once in the program's entire history, for a single week, in 1996, according to the school's media guide.
Now the Hokies won't go away.
They've been a regular in the Top 25 ever since and crept to No. 3 this week.
Coach Frank Beamer, 58, epitomizes this program's understated power.
Anybody who follows college football knows that Florida State's Bobby Bowden and Penn State's Joe Paterno have won more games than anybody else in college football with more than 300 victories each.
Guess who's No....
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