'He Had a Vision About This Place'

After 20 Seasons, Beamer Has Left an Indelible Mark on Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va.

Frank Beamer always saw more in Virginia Tech than anyone else could. He first started coming here more than 50 years ago, driving the hour from his home town of Fancy Gap, Va., to watch the Hokies play in Miles Stadium. The other kids in Fancy Gap never dreamed of playing big-time college football, and if they did, they dreamed about playing it at North Carolina or Alabama or some other big school. Frank Beamer dreamed about playing at Virginia Tech.

Once he finished playing, he wanted to coach Virginia Tech, more than he wanted to do anything else. While he coached at Murray State, he would drive his family through Blacksburg and show them his alma mater. After he was hired in December 1986, Beamer sat in high school kids' living rooms and told them Virginia Tech was going to play for the national championship one day. He believed it.

"I had been here nine years," Virginia Tech associate head coach Billy Hite said. "And I wasn't thinking like that."

Most everyone interested or involved in college football thinks like that now. Two decades after he arrived as head coach, Beamer has proved the state engineering school tucked in the mountains of southwest Virginia could become home to one of the biggest, flashiest and best college football teams in the country.

On Saturday, when Beamer leads the Hokies against Georgia in the Chick-fil-A Bowl -- the program's 14th consecutive season capped by a bowl -- he will complete his 20th season at Virginia Tech, his eighth 10-win season there and third in a row. Before Beamer arrived, the Hokies had won 10 games in a season once. Beamer has delivered not only the victories, but also all the trappings of an elite program: blue-chip recruits, state-of-the-art facilities, a rabid fan base and huge salaries for himself and his loyal assistants.

Over 20 years, Beamer has survived lean seasons and resisted overtures from other programs. He never wavered, never panicked and never changed. He's still the same down-to-earth coach whom defensive coordinator Bud Foster played for 27 years ago, still the same honest man his wife, Cheryl, met on a blind date 38 years ago. Beamer, the humble son of an elementary school teacher and assistant highway engineer from Fancy Gap, has transformed Virginia Tech football from an afterthought to a power, turning it into one of those big schools for which kids yearn to play.

"That's the way he's always felt," Hite said. "That's what he's always believed in. I just think he had a vision about this place, about how it could be such a special place."

From the Ground Up

Sitting at his desk -- three coach of the year trophies shaped like golden footballs resting high on the bookcase behind him -- Beamer can look out his office window at the new practice fields and Lane Stadium, now a 66,000-seat marvel. It rises like a castle out of the plain and is filled for every home game. The new weight room. The new academic center. The new rehab facility. Everything is new.

It wasn't always this way, not even close. A small service road used to run where the new buildings are, with shrubs all around it.

"There could have been some creatures in those bushes," Beamer said. "It was thick."