Is Beamer Out of Gas?

by Jonathan Gillespie 
intro by Mike Lunsford

Mike: I don't have much stake in college football. Both of my parents went to community college. I did, too.  My college had a flag football team. I think they were the "Fighting Commuters." 

Northern Virginia Community College: Home of all the jerks you didn't like in high school all in the same building again!

     I was lucky enough to have a good buddy who went to Virginia Tech. His parents went to Virginia Tech. They bled maroon and orange. I would visit him and get to go see the Hokies in action. Wow. College Football was so much more exciting than pro football in person! There were more songs, more traditions, the tailgating game was far superior and these fans had a stake in the game. I got to be a Hokie by proxy. So definitely a big thanks to my buddy Mike Trott and his parents Doug and Nina. Thanks for making me feel like a Gobbler, too. Oh...and thanks to Mike's little brother Kyle. I guess. 

     I rooted for the Hokies as hard as I could. Their coach and leader, Frank Beamer, seemed like he was in the mold of all those kindly, grandpa lookin' college football coaches.

Seriously, he looks like he would slip you a twenty and whisper "don't tell your Dad I gave this to you."

His teams had heart. They were fiesty! They blocked punts ALL the time, which gave them a huge competitive advantage. They made Lane Stadium a place that no one could just waltz into and think they could come out with a win. He made this team a force to be reckoned with and gave it an identity. They had their moments, they got close to championships and played some good football along the way. Unfortunately, as I've mentioned in the pages of this site before, you can root for a team as hard as you want, but it won't lead them to victory. With the Hokies, this was true as well. Things haven't been great for Virginia Tech in recent years. Frank Beamer just recently signed a contract extension through 2019 and many wonder if he will last that long with the team struggling lately.

     Our college football writer, and newest writer for GGR, Jonathan Gillespie, is a Virginia Tech alum. We've talked about our mutual love of the Fightin' Gobblers. I'll let him take it from here.

Jonathan:  I have been avoiding writing this for weeks. I really did not want to write it after a loss. I didn’t want this to seem like a salty response to the ECU loss this past Saturday, but it's time. It's time for me to write how I feel about the future of Frank Beamer coaching at Virginia Tech.

This was last year's loss. What's really sad, this year was not as shocking to most Hokie fans. 

     Frank Beamer has done so much for Virginia Tech. I was lucky to go to school when we were competing for ACC Championships ever year. It was fun. Unfortunately, the Hokies have not been that good for the past few years. There has been noticeable decline in the success of the program.           

     I think it is time for Frank to leave. There's a lot of talk that his son and current running backs coach, Shane Beamer,  would take over for his father. In my opinion, this would be a serious misstep.  We need to put some fire back into the team and the fan base. Current Defensive Coordinator, Bud Foster would be a much better fit. He would bring some much needed passion back to this team. When you compare Tech to the top tier college programs, that is what we are missing; passion. 

     That being said, I want Frank to be able to leave on a good note. He deserves to leave after either an ACC Championship or at the very least a bowl game win. I don’t want to be a dream crusher but the Hokies are a long way away from being a National Champion. I know Frank will not retire this year. There is a new AD and I know Beamer wants there to be stability for a few years. He wants to stay at least through the Battle in Bristol, against Tennessee next season. In a perfect world, we keep the bowl game streak going and the Hokies win in that bowl game. Frank get carried off on the shoulders of his players and leaves a winner. I just hope that his own ego will allow him to step away and see that things are not improving. I don't want this to end up like Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno. 

Another huge difference between college football and the NFL is the loyalty; there is no patience for coaches not immediately succeeding in the NFL. Moving on from the most successful coach in school history can't be easy, so I asked another Hokie alum, Alex Munoz for his take on Beamer's future.

Alex:  So I waver back and forth about whether Beamer should go or not. Beamer is VA Tech football. There was no national relevance before his arrival.

     I'm all for loyalty to people; but I do think that his time might have passed him by. It used to feel like we had lower ranked incoming freshman who would out perform their assigned "star". Now it seems like the 4 star recruits come and we don't get anything out of them. Too often it now seems like VA Tech is not prepared for certain games.

     The bowl game against UCLA was a prime example for me. Logan Thomas goes out and our backup QB (Mark Leal) was woefully under prepared. The entire team looked like it just slept walk through the rest of that game.

     ECU, while a respectable, competitive program, shouldn't be able to hang points on our normally nationally vaunted defense at will. Are all these issues directly influenced by Beamer? Probably not. He's tried to change the culture, bringing in bigger name assistant coaches, revamping the recruiting processes, playing more freshman but the results just don't seem to be there anymore. As the Head Coach, the buck stops with him. I keep hoping that he may have some Paterno like resurgence (ignoring the off field scandals of course) but with each struggle and game in which the fan base is left feeling like the team just wasn't there to give their all, it is harder to believe that Beamer will contend for a National Title. If that is the end goal, then it looks more like it to me that there needs to be a radical change starting at the top.

     The world of sports is a cruel one. You're a hero one day, and the goat the next. In a perfect world full of sunshine and rainbows, kindly looking ol' Frank Beamer would get to walk away after leading the Hokies to an ACC title. Could that still happen? Possibly. It doesn't look likely, but it could happen. At this point, we can only hope they play some inspired football now that the ACC season is underway. If this is nearing the end, thanks Frank. Thanks for everything, for taking this team to levels previously un-thought of. Thanks for putting the Hokies on the map. But leave before your reputation and legacy is still somewhat intact. Don't let your ego get in the way, but you do not have to go with your tail between your legs. Hold our head high as you did something no one could have ever predicted.