Already, a function beckoned.

On arrival night, participating teams are taken to Dave and Buster’s. That’s an eatery with a huge game room attached. Players could grab some grub and play some video games. Media was invited to attend, so interviews were mixed in with the fun.

It was at this event that Virginia Tech’s Ronyell Whitaker got his first live look at Clemson’s Rod Gardner.

Whitaker already knew plenty about Gardner. A cornerback, Whitaker makes it a point to learn everything he can about his "man" for the week. Gardner was a wide receiver who would end up as Clemson’s all-time leader in receptions. He was big at 6-4, 230 pounds. He was being projected as a first-round draft pick (and that’s exactly where he ended up, going to the Washington Redskins with the 15^th overall selection).

He was playing in his hometown and was excited about that. Like Whitaker, Gardner is a guy who loves to talk. It promised to be quite a matchup.

"That was the first time I’d seen him and I was like, ‘Gosh, he is a first-round draft pick.’ I saw how big he was," the 5-9 Whitaker recalled. "I’d been watching him on film a lot, wondering is he that good?

"Well, he is that good. He’s a great receiver. He has the size, the speed, he’s physical, he’s strong. I knew it wasn’t going to be any cakewalk checking him."

Whitaker had one advantage. Going against a top-flight receiver was nothing new. During the 2000 season, he earned second-team All-Big East Conference honors. That’s a league well-stocked with receivers. Miami had two who went in the first round in Santana Moss and Reggie Wayne. Pittsburgh had Antonio Bryant and Latef Grim. Whitaker had seen big-time up close.

He saw the assignment of covering Gardner as an honor and a challenge.

"The package Coach (Bud) Foster had in for that game was brilliant and I’m glad they gave me the opportunity, that they believed in me and felt I could cover him one on one," Whitaker said.

Tech beat Clemson in convincing fashion, 41-20, for the final victory in its second consecutive 11-1 season.

Stars were everywhere. Quarterback Michael Vick, playing what turned out to be his final game in a Hokies uniform, was voted Most Valuable Player. He threw for 205 yards and a touchdown. He ran for another score.

Lee Suggs, the man with 28 regular-season touchdowns, added three more (though they don’t count on his Tech record because the school doesn’t count bowl-game stats).

Andre Davis didn’t have a huge day at wide receiver, with only two catches for 70 yards. But one of the receptions was a 55-yarder, a sign that Davis was feeling much better after the various leg injuries that bothered him late in the season (he had surgery the week after the Gator Bowl).

On defense, there was a school of thought that tackle David Pugh should have been the game’s MVP. He led a vicious pass rush that kept Clemson quarterbacks Woodrow Dantzler and Willie Simmons scrambling for their safety. The two were sacked six times. Jim Davis, only a freshman, had sacks of Simmons on successive plays.

"That was probably the best pressure we were able to get on a quarterback just with our front four," Foster, the defensive coordinator, said. "We didn’t blitz as much as we have in other games, especially early. Our front four controlled the line of scrimmage. We just played fast. Pugh was outstanding, I thought a key force that day."

Whitaker?

Well, statistically it appears Gardner had a decent game. He finished with seven catches for 94 yards, not a bad outing. He caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Simmons. Clemson does count bowl stats in its records and Gardner became No. 1 with his Gator Bowl showing.

That said, Whitaker had one of the better games of his career. Clemson tried to find Gardner deep early and couldn’t get a completion. Much of his success came after the Hokies had assumed control.

Whitaker had one of Tech’s two interceptions. He returned it 27 yards to tie a school record for the longest interception return in a bowl game.

"Ronyell played a great game," Foster said. "He was in the guy’s face all day. He was very, very solid. I think just taking (Gardner) out of the offense was as big a contribution as we could get. They tried to take some deep shots at him early that were incomplete, that Ronyell contested, knocked away. He had some little quick gains, stop routes, that type of thing.

"Basically it just took a big part of their offense, a big weapon, right out of the game."

Gardner, like Whitaker, is all-world when it comes to talking. He wasn’t shy in Jacksonville.

"At the beginning of the game, he had a lot to say," Whitaker recalled. "He was saying things like I wasn’t on his level, what made me think I could check him, things like that."

Whitaker didn’t respond with silence. He talked, too.

"Of course," he said with a laugh. "I was just telling him we were about to see right now, about to prove in front of the whole world right now. Let’s do it.

"And a few other things."

He even got into the act with Clemson coach Tommy Bowden. At one point, Whitaker and Foster said, Bowden implored Gardner by yelling, "Rod, baby, Rod, baby, the guy is only 5-9. Work your magic."

Whitaker’s response? "I told him he would have been better off bringing Tulane (Bowden’s former team)," Whitaker said.

All in fun, he hastened to add. He respects the Bowden family, he said, and is looking forward to going against Tommy’s father Bobby and Florida State in the upcoming Gator Bowl. He also respects Gardner, who Whitaker said stayed pretty quiet as the game progressed.

The two didn’t get a chance to speak after the game.

"It was hard checking him," Whitaker said. "He is good."

Whitaker heaped praise on the Hokies’ pass rush that day, pointing out that it made it much easier to cover.

"They were stellar, the way they played that game was unreal," Whitaker said. "They bottled (Dantzler) up, he couldn’t get going. That set the stage for the secondary. We really didn’t have to heat him up a whole lot because those guys were playing so well."

He’ll take the same mindset into this year’s bowl as he did last year. "You want to go out and provide as much energy, as big a spark as possible," Whitaker said. "That not only helps me, it helps the younger guys on the team see how to step up in games like this."

It’s been said by many that a bowl game is as much the first game of the following season as it is the final game of the previous season. Many college football fans make it a point to catch as many bowls as they can on television, often the only time they’ll see a particular team. Reputations are made that carry over to the next year.

Whitaker is a believer in that theory. In 2001, he earned first team All-Big East honors and third-team All-America honors. Oh, he earned them with his play in 2001. If he’d stunk, his performance against Gardner wouldn’t have meant a thing. But it was his performance against Gardner that helped label Whitaker as one to watch and watchers – the voters for the various honors teams – obviously liked what they saw.

"That game gave me a confidence boost," said Whitaker, who already had plenty of that. "It built my confidence to a whole ‘nother level. After that, I thought I could guard anybody."

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