By Jimmy Robertson

Nearly all of the postseason awards have been handed out. All the banquets are over. And final exams just ended.

Now for Virginia Tech, it's time to prepare for the national championship.

Tech head coach Frank Beamer and his players addressed the media at Tech's Sugar Bowl press conference at the Merryman Center before heading to the practice field to prepare for the Sugar Bowl showdown with Florida State on Jan. 4.

"I'm looking forward to getting out there and knocking some of the rust off," Tech All-American defensive end Corey Moore said. "I'm ready to get this thing going."

The Hokies haven't been on the field since beating Boston College on Nov. 26 to complete their first perfect season in 81 years. Since the BC game, Beamer, Moore and quarterback Michael Vick have been on the banquet circuit, accepting various awards and honors. Moore himself spent the better part of a week on the road, traveling to Charlotte to pick up the Nagurski Award and then to Houston to garner the Lombardi Award. He also went to Orlando for ESPN's awards show.

Vick and Beamer meanwhile went to New York to participate in the Heisman Trophy festivities. Vick finished third in the voting behind Wisconsin tailback Ron Dayne and Georgia Tech quarterback Joe Hamilton. Beamer - the Associated Press and Walter Camp coach of the year - spoke at the Heisman dinner.

And to top it off, all the players went through exams this past week. But it's all over now and it's time to get down to business.

"This particular year, it's been good to get away from it," Beamer said of his team's break from football. "You just don't realize how much pressure there has been and our players have handled it very well. But I think we needed to get away from it mentally.

"Now everything's over. Everything's done with. It's time to make a great preparation for Florida State."

The hot topic of conversation for the press conference centered around the long layoff for both teams. Florida State finished its season a week earlier than Tech and it will be 44 days between games for the 'Noles. For Tech, the number is 38.

"I told Bobby [Bowden, FSU's coach] that we needed that long to build our nerve up to play them," Beamer joked. "No, I know Bobby's concerned about it and I now they've been practicing.

"But for us, our preparation is going to be the same. We're not going to change the way we do things. What's important for us is coming to practice each day and getting things right. I really don't see the long layoff as a big issue."

Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster, whose unit must match up against a Seminoles group averaging 37.5 points and 425.7 yards per game, agreed.

"It gives us an opportunity to heal up," he said. "And we've done some pass skeleton drills to keep our timing. Now that we've got exams out of the way, we can focus on Florida State from here on out.

"You know, these kids play football all fall and then they go through spring practice and through summer conditioning. A couple of weeks off late in the year isn't going to hurt 'em."

Dealing with the media:

More than 100 media representatives arrived in Blacksburg for the media press conference. That served as prep course for Tech, which hasn't seen the media crush like it will see in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl. At least one player - Moore - knows exactly how to prepare his teammates for all the people.

"First thing I'm going to do is tell the guys, 'Look, if you don't want to talk to any of these media guys, then I'll tell them to stay away,'" he said. "Because you guys [the media] can't win the game for us. You guys aren't going to play a factor in who wins the games.

"I'm sick and tired of hearing people say 'Well, Virginia Tech hasn't had the media attention. How are they going to react?' You guys aren't going to play the game for us. I don't want to be rude and tell you guys to get the hell out of my face, but really I don't want to talk to you guys all day long [in New Orleans].

"And when you guys are bombarding my teammates and they don't want to talk to you, I'm going to tell you to get the hell out of their faces. That's not being rude. That's just trying to get focused."

No backing down:

Even though Florida State has a national championship to its credit and even though the Seminoles have finished in the AP's top four in each of the past 12 seasons, they don't intimidate the Hokies. Tech plans on traveling to New Orleans and winning.

"They better be concerned about us," Moore said. "We have nothing to lose. All the pressure's on them. They were there last year and I thought they should have won, but they didn't get the job done.

"They fought all season long to stay No. 1. I thought at times they played good and at times they didn't. So all the pressure's on them. There's no pressure on us.

"It's going to very hard for their coaches to convince them that we can beat them and that's good. That's just their mentality. A lot of their guys question whether we should be there, and by the time they realize we can beat them, it's going to be too late."

Points hard to come by:

Tech comes into the game averaging more than 40 points per game, while the Seminoles averaged 37.5 points per game. But despite the gaudy numbers put up by both offenses, Beamer expects the game to be relatively low scoring mainly because of the strength of both teams' defenses.

"I think it'll be in the 20s, but you never know," Beamer said. "I don't know if we can score more than 20.

"I think it's very important for us to pick up first downs and keep that clock moving. We need to keep all those [FSU] receivers over there with coach Bowden. That's where they need to be."

Doing it with defense:

One of the many storylines for the game concerns Tech's defense against Florida State's passing offense. The Hokies allowed just 171.4 yards per game and they ranked seventh nationally in pass defense.

But Florida State averaged 302.9 yards passing through the air per game, which ranked 12th nationally. The Seminoles' fleet-footed receiving corps - led by Peter Warrick - presents a lot of concerns for Tech, particularly because the Hokies' secondary has been exploited at times this season.

"He's going to get his catches," Moore said. "But we've got to keep him contained. We can't stand around and watch and let him do his thing.

"But there's a lot of things they do offensively that they're going to have trouble doing against our defense. I think we match up well. You talk about the amount of talent they have and the speed they have. Well, we've got that too."

"I think a big key for us is not giving up anything cheap early," Foster said. "They've been known to run a lot of reverses and reverse passes early in the game. If we can just weather the storm early, then they get back into more of what they want to do."

Vick preparing for the challenge:

Now that Vick is finished with his exams, he's ready for his next test - Florida State's defense, mainly their defensive line. Led by All-American Corey Simon, the Seminoles recorded 29 sacks this season and allowed opponents just 304.6 yards of total offense per game. Vick, in contrast, accounted for more than 2,000 yards of total offense and 20 touchdowns (12 passing, eight rushing).

"I know they're going to come after me and try to hit me," Vick said. "They're going to do whatever they can to rattle me. They're probably thinking 'He's a redshirt freshman. He hasn't seen a defense like this.' They're going to knock me around a little bit, but that's part of the game. That brings out the best in me too."

Offensive coordinator Rickey Bustle doesn't expect to see a whole lot of new schemes from FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews - whom coincidentally Bustle served as a graduate assistant under many years ago at Clemson.

"Everyone tried something a little different against us," Bustle said. "But nobody's going to change their defense. Sometimes I think it's overrated trying to confuse Mike."

Making the walk:

Beamer rearranged the Hokies' practice schedule for Saturday because of graduation ceremonies at Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies will practice at 2:30 p.m. instead of in the morning.

Several of Tech's players - including cornerbacks Ike Charlton and Anthony Midget, reserve quarterback Dave Meyer, linebacker Michael Hawkes and snapper Shane Beamer - leave Blacksburg with their degrees. Charlton, Midget and Meyer all graduated in three and a half years, which is impressive considering the demands on players' time.

"That's definitely worth working around," Frank Beamer said. "It's a special day for those guys and it's a special day for us."

And for those who don't know, Moore and reserve quarterback Greg Shockley already have graduated.