Shayne Skov a head-banger for Stanford's defense

Miami - — In the Stanford locker room, Shayne Skov is the class clown, the guy who helps keep things lighthearted. His teammates call him "Ginger" because of his reddish hair, which has grown out after being shaped in a Mohawk all season.

Before Monday's Orange Bowl against Virginia Tech, though, he promises the Mohawk will be back. He'll don his usual black face paint and listen to heavy metal to get into the appropriate head-banging mood. The time for laughter will be over.

"That's when you see the nasty side of Ginger," free safety Michael Thomas said.

"When he gets on the field, he's like a whole new person," strong safety Delano Howell said. "He's a beast."

There was no redshirt year for Skov as a freshman. He was a ready-made college inside linebacker - strong, fast and blessed with a nose for the ball. He had 15 tackles in last year's Sun Bowl against Oklahoma.

This year he was the team's leading tackler, with 72 stops, despite missing the first two games with a leg injury. He had 13 tackles against USC. Even if he's caught out of position at times, he has the speed to make up for it.

"He can get a little out of whack at times," defensive coordinator Vic Fangio said. "But he's more like a budding thoroughbred than a dumb donkey."

Skov will be one of the main people trying to contain the Hokies' scrambling quarterback, Tyrod Taylor.

"He does a fantastic job of using his legs to extend plays," Skov said. "Virginia Tech thrives off what he's capable of doing and the intangibles he has. We need to try to keep him in the pocket and (apply) pressure the same way we have all year."

The last time the Cardinal saw a quarterback this quick afoot, Oregon's Darron Thomas gashed them for 117 yards rushing and 238 more in the air. But Virginia Tech's more conventional offense is not as high-powered as Oregon's, a hurry-up, option attack out of a spread formation.

Skov will try as well to stuff the tailback trio of Darren Evans (817 yards), David Wilson (616) and Ryan Williams (473). The face paint, he thinks, helps get him in the mood to do that.

"I've done it since high school," he said. As for his all-out style, he said, "I was raised that if I was going to play a sport, I was going to play it aggressively."

He was born in San Francisco but grew up playing football on dirt fields in Mexico, where his family lived because the climate was better for his mother, Terri. She has multiple sclerosis and is currently convalescing in New Mexico.

After the family moved back to the Bay Area, he attended Piedmont High for a year, then played three years at Trinity-Pawling, a prep school in Pawling, N.Y. His brother, Patrick, a fullback/linebacker, also went to a prep school in the East, Lawrenceville (N.J.) Academy, and recently gave a verbal commitment to Stanford.

Is he as good as Shayne? "He will be, but not yet," Shayne said. "I've got the older-brother syndrome. I'm not conceding yet."