Thomas DeMarco rushed for three touchdowns and passed for two more as Old Dominion won its sixth straight game, beating Virginia Military Institute 42-35 on Saturday to complete its first season of football.

They might be thinking about it, but you won’t hear William and Mary’s players talking much about the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs or the two-game stretch that confronts them. “The thing we’ve said all year is we want to go 1-0 this week,“ Tribe tight end Rob Varno said. The fifth-ranked Tribe (5-1 CAA, 8-1) has a date with eighth-ranked New Hampshire (5-1, 8-1) on Saturday in Williamsburg. William and Mary plays at fourth-ranked Richmond (6-1, 8-1), the defending national champion, in its regular-season finale.

Virginia Military Institute coach Sparky Woods was glad to see that fullback Howard Abegesah was tired when he got on the bus for the trip back from Clinton, S.C., on Saturday. Abegesah responded to a significantly increased workload as VMI (1-3, 2-5) snapped a five-game losing streak and picked up its first road win since 2007 and its first Big South Conference road win since 2005 by beating Presbyterian 31-20.

After averaging 34.3 points in its first three games, James Madison has scored just 34 in its past three. The Dukes were shut out 27-0 by fourth-ranked Villanova on Saturday and crossed midfield just twice, leaving coach Mickey Matthews searching for answers. There’s not many changes he can make at this point in the season, he said yesterday.

HARRISONBURG—Forget about whether he should stick with one quarterback, James Madison coach Mickey Matthews said. He was more concerned about the fact that Virginia Military Institute gummed up the seventh-ranked Dukes’ bread-and-butter running game and had to air it out in a 44-16 victory last night at Bridgeforth Stadium. “We need to be focused on our offensive line more than our quarterbacks,“ Matthews said. “That’s where the controversy needs to be right now.“

Liberty lost its first two Big South Conference games in 2006 under new coach Danny Rocco. It hasn’t lost a conference game since. That 11-game win streak, Rocco believes, made a team that is installing a lot of replacement parts a safe pick to repeat as champs of a league that could be topsy-turvy. Five teams drew first-place votes from the league’s coaches and media.

They lug it around like a 100-pound backpack on a late-night run. Virginia Military Institute’s football team hasn’t had a winning season since 1981, something Keydet players can grudgingly recite along with more revered factoids of VMI lore. “Twenty-seven seasons, or something around there,“ VMI quarterback Tim Maypray said. So what have some of the Keydets quietly been talking about this preseason? Would you believe a championship in the Big South Conference?

Hermitage High grad Griff Yancey enters his junior season at James Madison at a new position, but that’s nothing new for him. The receiver-turned-running-back has been moved to free safety by JMU coach Mickey Matthews. “Since he arrived as a freshman I thought he’d be a good safety, but we already had players there,“ Matthews said. “But he’ll succeed wherever he is. He’s an overall good football player.“

The water temperature in the athletic cold tubs at Virginia Military Institute usually ranges from 58 to 60 degrees. Tim Maypray can tell you plenty about its restorative effects. Each day last season before football practice—and sometimes after—Maypray immersed all or part of his 5-8, 165-pound body into a tub to help ease the aches inherent with being an option quarterback.

Coach college baseball in the state, move into the New York Yankees’ organization. Tom Slater, a VMI and St. Christopher’s alumnus, is the latest to take that path. Slater, 41, is in his first season as the manager for the Yankees’ Gulf Coast League club, based in Tampa. His Yankees are 8-1. Slater works mostly with players who were selected in last month’s draft, and other rookies.

For two of the state’s men’s college basketball teams, it’s not a matter of whether they will make the NCAA tournament, it’s a matter of where they’ll play and the seeding they’ll receive. Virginia Commonwealth University’s Rams and Radford’s Highlanders—and fans of the two teams—will be watching the NCAA selection program this evening to see what bracket slots they will occupy.

RADFORD—Kenny Thomas closed his eyes Friday night, but he never fell asleep. He got up to get a drink, went back to bed, but no luck. All night, the possibilities for yesterday’s Big South championship game raced through his mind. Thomas, a Highland Springs High graduate, was sick of sitting around every March, watching the NCAA tournament, wondering how it would feel if he and his Radford teammates were on that television screen, trying to slay one of college basketball’s giants. “Why not us?“ he’d ask himself.

Before last season, Radford’s basketball players harbored little hope that they would play for a Big South championship during their careers. They were bad, and they knew it. “We had a losing mentality,“ said senior guard Kenny Thomas, a former Highland Springs High standout. The disheartening reality was impossible for them to ignore: They had just finished an 8-22 season—their fifth losing record in the past six seasons. They had lost in the first round of the conference tournament for five straight years.

Chavis Holmes scored 27 points and Travis Holmes had 20 points to become the highest scoring twin brothers in NCAA Division I history in Virginia Military Institute’s 92-85 win over High Point on yesterday. The Holmes brothers have combined for 3,262 points, passing former VMI players Damon and Ramon Williams—who finished with 3,252 career points in 1990. Travis Holmes also had 11 rebounds.

They also came to witness what the Keydets faithful believe might be the next great VMI basketball team. The crowd, the first sellout in Cameron Hall’s 28-year history, was introduced to the players from VMI’s 1975-76 and 1977-78 teams at halftime. Those squads were a combined 48-10, with NCAA final eight and Sweet 16 appearances between them.