Slept On It: Lane Stadium Bids Farewell to Frank Beamer

After Frank Beamer announced he would retire at the season's end, I found myself fantasizing about how his last moments in Lane Stadium would play out. Knowing a talented North Carolina team would be on the opposing sideline only made those visions more polarizing.

At times, I worried this inconsistent Hokies team would get run over by both the day's emotions and Larry Fedora's high octane offense. Another dream had a performance straight from a Hollywood script, where a plucky Virginia Tech squad refused to back down and battled their way to an upset win.

Saturday afternoon turned out to be an amalgamation of the dizzying number of outcomes that ran through my head these past few weeks. And it was incredible.

Longtime Beamer compatriot Bud Foster put together a marvellous game plan, keeping a Carolina offense that had scored 125 points in their previous two games in check for three quarters. After giving up touchdowns on back-to-back UNC drives to fall behind by 14 points midway through the fourth quarter, the Hokies battled back in defiance of the prospect of sending their coach out with a loss.

Down 14 with 4:24 to play, QB Michael Brewer connected on a fourth down touchdown strike to Bucky Hodges to cut the deficit in half. On the ensuing Carolina drive, senior Luther Maddy stripped Tar Heel quarterback Marquise Williams near midfield to set up an improbable game tying drive for the Hokies.

After a 36-yard toss down the sideline to Isaiah Ford and a near touchdown on third down from the four, Brewer was able to hit Ford over the middle to tie the game with just over a minute to play.

Minutes away from a bittersweet celebration of Frank's storied career, the players he loved so dearly banded together and out-willed the Tar Heels down the stretch.

"I love my guys," gushed Beamer post-game. "I told them before we came up here today, and I really mean this — I've had a lot of really great players — this team has been the best overall from character, they do things the right way, they want to win, they work hard to win. Some things haven't happened as well as we've liked, but I've never known them not to play hard."

On a day where thousands of Hokies flocked to Blacksburg to show their respect and admiration for a man that was always quick to shy away from the spotlight, watching that late comeback can only be described as surreal.

As Tech fans, we've experienced our fair share of success under Beamer; seven conference titles, eight consecutive ten-win seasons, the longest active bowl streak in the nation and a national championship game appearance.

Despite great success over a sustained period of time, many of us have been consistently left wanting more, struggling to find solace in yet another bowl appearance or Commonwealth Cup victory. It's as though we were spoiled by our own rapid ascent to the top of the college football mountain in 1999; despite consistent success for the next decade, Tech was never able to climb that last hurdle and return to pinnacle.

But the Hokies' inability to fill the empty trophy case that once inhabited the Merryman Center will not define Beamer's legacy. His impact on the Virginia Tech community is immeasurable, much of which transcends the game of football.

In a strange way, Saturday's overtime loss on a questionable UNC touchdown reception in overtime is an almost fitting end to Beamer's time on the Worsham Field sideline. For most programs in America, college football is about wins and losses. For Frank Beamer and the program he built at Virginia Tech, it's always been about more than that.

It's about the journey. It's about the people he has encountered and the lives he has impacted. It's about leaving things better than he found them, whether it be physically, emotionally or spiritually. But most of all, it's about family.

Saturday's game won't be remembered for the way in which the Hokies lost. It will be defined by the character shown by the players and the way that they fought back against extraordinary odds. He didn't need to give a big rah-rah speech on the sideline to remind his players of the situation. Their effort was a reflection of their deep respect and love for a man that they wanted to send off in style.

Even on his last day roaming the sideline in Lane, Beamer refused to stand alone in the spotlight.

Beamer emphatically remarked post-game, "I've been amazed at our fans and the appreciation they've shown here throughout the day. I've always said we've got the greatest fans and they showed it again today and I appreciate them. I saw a lot of signs that said something about appreciating me, but I appreciate them."

I think about how my children won't have the opportunity to watch Frank Beamer lead the Hokies out of the tunnel to Enter Sandman or dance the Fancy Gap Shuffle after a big win. Instead my wife and I will be forced to tell stories about the 25 sets of brothers to play under Coach Beamer, or the way in which he helped bring the community together after April 16th. About how he went to the hospital with Macho Harris after he suffered third degree burns prior to an at-home recruiting visit, or phoned Sam Rogers' brother to wish him well after a house fire.

I would be lying if I said I didn't apply to Virginia Tech because of Frank Beamer. As someone who grew up hundreds of miles north of Blacksburg, my first taste of Virginia Tech football didn't come until that storied 1999 campaign. Were it not for that remarkable season, I probably never would have even visited Tech's campus during my senior year of high school.

I never would have had an opportunity to tour Tech's beautiful campus or learn about the school's architecture program. Similar to how Doug Flutie introduced a small, Jesuit suitcase school in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts to the nation in the 1980's, Frank Beamer did the same thing in southwest Virginia over a decade later.

Directly or indirectly, Frank Beamer has had a profound and tangible impact on each and every one of our lives. When his players lifted him on and carried him off the field on their shoulders, Beamer couldn't help but smile and enjoy the limelight. For in that moment, all of the love and gratitude each and every one of us has for the man rained down on him.

That will be my lasting memory of Frank Beamer's last game at Lane Stadium. An ending befitting a legendary human being.