Virginia Tech after Frank Beamer feels like it’s a little bit in that post-Bowden haze. The Hokies needed to do some serious catching up in terms of staffing, funding and facility upgrades that had lagged in the latter Beamer years. Sometimes that happens when a coach has been so successful for so long. If something’s working well - like eight consecutive 10-win seasons from 2004-11 - what motivation is there to change or make serious upgrades?īut you also wonder if Beamer’s strategy of supplementing Tech’s stars with under-the-radar or overlooked players that develop over the course of four of five years works that well in today’s game. It’s tough for somebody special to fly under the radar these days with all the ways recruits get their name out there, though not impossible (see Darrisaw, Christian).īrent Pry is reaching back to that Beamer playbook - recruit local, lean on relationships, put a hard-nosed defense in place - as he looks to the future, though college football is changing, and I wonder how well situated the Hokies will be on the NIL front in the recruiting game in subsequent years, not to mention what kind of revenue deficit they’ll be up against if the SEC and Big Ten lap the field. So it’s tough to say where Virginia Tech is on the “replacing a legend” scale. It turned out Justin Fuente wasn’t up to the task, with some systemic forces not helping his cause. Replacing a legend is often more than just who’s coaching the team.īut it’s a shifting paradigm in college football, with the best teams consolidating the top talent and money becoming even more of a factor.
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