There are two big questions currently surrounding Virginia Tech football, the first being how long Frank Beamer will remain as head coach. When asked at ACC Media Days, the 67-year-old responded, "I'd say as long as I've got a good quarterback, a good kicker and my health is good, I'm enjoying what I'm doing and feel like I wanna do it a few more years."
The second question is who will replace him when he does step down or get fired as some people believe he should. For as little as we know about the length of Frank's tenure, we know less about who will be his successor. In order to get a better idea of who the man in charge on the field will be post-Beamer, it's important to look at the new man in charge off the field, Whit Babcock.
It's not a secret that Virginia Tech athletics as a whole has gotten a makeover with the hiring of Whit Babcock. In his short tenure, he has made the necessary financial commitments to the revenue sports to ensure national relevance as well as reenergized a fan base hungry to get back to national prominence.
The most telling thing he's done so far is hiring basketball coach Buzz Williams. It showed that he is willing to step outside of the Virginia Tech bubble of coaches to hire someone who has won in the past and committed to winning in the future. He was also able to lure the great Tommy Tuberville to the University of Cincinnati, a school with next to no relevance in college football which echoes his sentiment from Buzz's first press conference. ""I think any time you can get a proven coach who's been successful at the highest levels, you want to take that shot..."
Under Jim Weaver, this simply did not exist and that breath of fresh air completely reenergized a program that had lost games and fan support. If Weaver was still AD, the question of who will succeed Beamer would be between his son Shane Beamer and legendary defensive coordinator Bud Foster. Now there is the distinct possibility of an outside hire.
However, there is one thing that throws a large wrench into the problem. While the most discussed changes to the football team came at the end of the 2012 season when Beamer parted ways with two offensive coaches and the demotion of another, the most important happened the year before when Shane came aboard.
The wildly successful recruiter returned to Blacksburg as running backs coach and associate head coach, a fact that was snuck quietly into the announcement.
That should mean that as of this moment, Shane Beamer has more power than Foster despite having played under him from 1995-1999. After all, he did go out for the hand shake after the Military Bowl victory.
The popular belief among Hokie Nation is that Foster will be the next head coach. I would be inclined to agree with that if it weren't for the current title of the younger Beamer and Babcock's tendency to go with a proven winner. Foster has put in the work to become head coach but his lack of head coaching experience despite actively pursuing jobs at Clemson and Pittsburgh just to name a couple is worrisome.
The same exact thing can be said about Shane, though, which lends quite a bit of credence to the notion that Babcock will again look outside the Virginia Tech family of coaches. The question is whether or not the Board of Visitors, University President Timothy Sands and Frank Beamer will allow him to do that. Hokie football has been a family affair since the 1990s, a period which saw the rise of the program and it's lone shot at a national championship. And this fact is certainly not lost on fans.
Ultimately, though, the job will most likely boil down to Bud Foster and an outside candidate for two reasons. First of all, Shane's age and pedigree will allow him to get some head coaching experience at another school. He was already a finalist for the head coaching position at Florida Atlantic University. At that rate, odds are good he will be off the staff by the time Frank retires anyway barring unforeseen circumstances. Secondly, Whit was able to come in and decisively make a decision about the basketball program. It is not a reach to say that he can or will reshuffle the pecking order in the football program to accommodate for a slightly more proven coach in Foster.
The college football coaching carousel changes yearly so it would be nearly impossible to predict who will be available in even two years' time. The most likely external candidate would be Duke's David Cutcliffe who already has a great relationship with Beamer. With his recent success, Cutcliffe is getting the better recruits to sign up to come to Durham for football, including 4-star recruits from Virginia. The only thing that could even be considered more impressive recruiting-wise is the job Mark Stoops has done at Kentucky. Other theoretical names to consider would be former Florida Atlantic head coach and current Alabama assistant Mario Cristobal and San Fransisco 49ers offensive coordinator Pep Hamilton who nearly became the Hokies' offensive coordinator a couple years ago. After those guys, the list includes a bunch of super stretch candidates that either have no reason to leave their school or don't have the necessary qualifications of an national program looking to get back to its glory days.
There are no terrible options out of any of the coaches listed above, including Bud Foster and Shane Beamer. The question is whether or not Whit Babcock is willing to take a risk on the unproven Foster or stick with his tried and true method of established coaches. And that question cannot be answered by anyone other than Whit.
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