Frank Beamer's Legacy Heading into His 25th Season Coaching Virginia Tech

People often attempt to determine a person’s legacy too soon. One great accomplishment can get people to talking and forming a legacy, but those ideas later become outdated due to poor acts of judgement. If those accomplishments continue for an extended period of time then they become accurate representations.

This upcoming season will be the 25^th for Virginia Tech head coach Frank Beamer. In those 25 years Beamer has turned his alma mater from a poor program into one of the best in the country. There is only one goal that Beamer has yet to achieve:  winning a National Championship.

So the question is will the lack of a national title blemish his otherwise stellar career? Will he be the greatest coach to never win it all, or can he join the exclusive club of winning coaches and become one of the greats of all time?

What is often forgotten about Frank Beamer’s tenure is that it could have easily ended before it even started. His first head coaching job came with Murray State University. He coached the Racers for six seasons amassing a record of 42-23-2.

Virginia Tech hired Beamer on December 22, 1986. This was a hire that eventually made the Hokies a national contender, but it didn’t start out that way. The Hokies had two winning seasons during Beamer’s first six at the helm. During that time he had a record of 24-40-2. The Hokies went 2-8-1 in the final season of that stretch.

Virginia Tech would have been justified in firing Beamer with a record like that in his first six years. I once gave a group of college students these numbers (without giving Beamer’s name) and every single one of them would have fired the coach. They quickly changed their minds after Beamer’s name was given. Still, the original message was clear.

Beamer had one thing going for him during those first six years. He was coaching at a college that had no consistent history of success. His continued employment could be attributed to great foresight on the part of the Virginia Tech administration or sheer dumb luck. We may never know which, but he continued to coach and the Hokies have reaped the benefits.

Since 1993 the Hokies have amassed 18 straight winning seasons (appearing in bowls in each of them). He has coached seven straight 10-win seasons (NCAA’s longest active streak). They have appeared in five BCS bowl games (one of them was a National Championship game) and two Bowl Alliance bowls (BCS precursor).

Beamer’s record at Virginia Tech totals 198-95-2. For his career he has a record of 240-118-4. He has now been with the Hokies for a quarter of a century, yet that pesky National Championship continues to elude him.

He came close in 1999 with Michael Vick at quarterback. They had a perfect season with a record of 11-0 heading into the Sugar Bowl. They played Florida State for the national title. Beamer and Vick had the Hokies up by one point heading into the fourth quarter. That lead was relinquished and the Seminoles won the title. Virginia Tech hasn’t been this close to the promised land since.

Most coaches won’t ever win a national title, but most don’t have the same pressure that Beamer has to live with every year. In 1999 a trophy case was built that was reserved for a future National Championship trophy. After 12 years, the case remains empty.

If filled it would be the ultimate accomplishment of Beamer’s stellar career. If left empty, it would become a broken promise made to the Hokie Nation and would ultimately become a cloud over Frank Beamer’s career.

Now that former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel has been fired and his wins from last season have been vacated. Beamer has become the second winningest active coach in NCAA football (behind Penn State coach Joe Paterno). Despite this fact, Frank Beamer’s national reputation will be determined by whether he wins the top title.The lack of a National Championship would put a stain on his legacy from a national perspective.

But Blacksburg and the Hokie Nation, as a whole, will view him as the greatest coach in the school’s history. Beamer will turn 65 on October 18, so it is safe to say that we are closer to the end then the beginning of his career.

No matter what happens during the rest of the Coach Beamer era, the fans and the school will be forever grateful for what he has done for Virginia Tech.