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Virginia Tech football fans remember Dec. 3, 2005, as the date the Hokies were defeated in the first-ever Atlantic Coast Conference championship game. The truth is, they nearly lost something far more valuable than bragging rights and a gaudy trophy.
Sometime during the 27-22 loss to Florida State, defensive coordinator Bud Foster questioned a call by boss Frank Beamer. Emotions were roiling. The pressure of the moment was intense, and Beamer jumped on Foster like a guy trying to kill a snake with penny loafers.
“ ‘Bud, this is my team, not your team,’ ” Foster vividly remembers Beamer snarling, followed by the “suggestion” that he shut his mouth.
Foster was stunned. Beamer had never said anything like that to him, or anyone else, before. Not during Foster’s days playing for Beamer at Murray State University in 1979 and 1980. Not during the seasons he spent as a graduate assistant and assistant coach at the same school. Not during what was then 18 years together at Tech, where Foster had risen from inside-linebackers coach to co-defensive coordinator in 1995 to sole occupant of the position a year later.
A PIVOTAL MOMENT
On the flight back home that night, Foster, a bear of a man with a friendly, down-home personality, weighed his future and tried to keep his emotions in check.
“I remember telling my wife, ‘T his might be it,’” Foster relayed recently. “That hurt me at that time. The last thing I wanted to do was for Coach to feel like I would undermine him, to disrespect him. I mean, I was in tears. What had I done to step over the bounds? What had I done for him to bark at me like that?
“I had given so much of myself to him, to the program, but if he didn’t want me … .”
The next morning, Beamer and Foster were flying out of town together. Foster arrived ready to offer his resignation, but Beamer intercepted that plan.
“‘Bud, that wasn’t me last night,’” Foster recalled being told. “‘Please accept my apology.’”
And that’s how the most ballyhooed relationship in college football, now about to begin its 32nd year, was saved.
“But that’s Coach,” said Foster, who pointedly can’t bring himself to call him Frank. “He’s never afraid to communicate openly, never afraid to talk honestly. Some men wouldn’t have been big enough to do that.”
In return, Beamer and Tech have benefited in ways neither imagined possible. The head Hokie begins the season with 229 victories, tied with Jim Tressel of Ohio State for second-most among active coaches behind Penn State’s Joe Paterno. His teams have made 17 straight bowl appearances. Only Texas, with nine, has more consecutive 10-win seasons than Tech’s six.
EVERY STEP OF THE WAY
Foster, 51, has been an integral part of every triumph. On four occasions, more than any coach in the NCAA, Foster has been a finalist for the Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in college football. He won in 2006, after his defense led the nation for the second consecutive season. For most of the decade, Tech’s defense has finished among the nation’s top 10.
Last season, it was 12th, but Beamer points out that Foster may have turned in his seminal coaching performance. In the middle of the season, the Hokies struggled, surrendering 16 second-half points to Duke, 14 to Boston College, 21 to Georgia Tech and 13 to North Carolina.
But in the final six games — including a Chick-fil-A Bowl shellacking of Tennessee — no one scored in the second half against Foster's defense. Maryland put up a touchdown, but that came when the Terps' defense recovered a fumble in the Tech end zone.
“We were somewhat of a growing defense,” Beamer says. “We had some youth. [The six-game finish] reflects Bud saying, ‘OK, we’ll make adjustments at halftime, we’ll be better in the second half than the first half,’ through the year. And that’s the statement that says it all with Bud and his defensive staff.”
‘A GUY YOU COULD RELY ON’
Beamer has always appreciated Foster’s abnormal ability to understand the game and pass it on to others, calling it “his gift.” In 1981, Beamer’s first season as head coach at Murray State, he assigned Foster, a 22-year-old grad assistant, to coach the kids at outside linebacker, many of whom were close pals.
“I’ve always had the same feeling about Bud: This was a guy you could rely on,” Beamer explained. “Bud’s always been the steady one. He knows what he’s doing, he learns quickly and he’s gifted. His titles may have changed, but he’s always been a guy I could trust.”
The one title to elude Foster, of course, is head coach. He’s been interested in a couple of jobs, and says it remains a goal, “but I also know that as I get older my window closes. Everyone wants that new dynamic guy. But, hey, 50 is the new 35 or 40, right? And I hope people look at that.”
Last fall brought a new challenge for Beamer and Tech — offers from Urban Meyer at Florida, Jimbo Fisher at Florida State and Mark Richt at Georgia for Foster to become their defensive coordinator.
Richt came closest to prying Foster away with a sack-o’-cash offer the likes of which Foster couldn’t fathom. Also, his kids were gone, and there was a momentary sensation, quickly passed, that maybe he needed a new challenge.
STAYING HOME WITH TECH
As with virtually every problem he’s had since Murray State, Foster leaned on Beamer’s counsel. The coach, who has a well-deserved reputation for making sure his assistants are taken care of financially, began the conversation by asking Foster how much he thought he was worth to Tech and the program.
“I had no idea; it’s hard for me to place a value on myself,” Foster said. “Coach came back the next day and I said, ‘$500,000,’ enough to pay off my house when I’m done.”
Beamer advised him to think about it some more. When they met again, they agreed that $1 million was too much. “Would $800,000 do?” Beamer asked.
Foster assured him it would, Beamer took off for the president’s office, and within a few days the deal was done.
There are only two catches. There is no provision for Foster to replace the 63-year-old Beamer when he decides to retire. And to receive the $800,000, which is separate from his $400,000 annual compensation package, he must remain at Tech another five years.
That doesn’t sound like a problem.
“I work for a great football coach, a guy going to the Hall of Fame,” Foster said. “He has created a great working environment here. We have fun, but we also have expectations. He’s the boss, but he has surrounded himself with outstanding people. It’s really a family, something other schools try to sell. The difference is that we live what we sell, and that, to me, makes us pretty special.”
Jim Ducibella, a former long-time sports writer for The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in Norfolk, is the 2010 media inductee into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Ducibella, who profiled Joe Gibbs for Boomer last year, writes Internet articles for the College of William & Mary’s communications office.
The Scouting Report
BUD FOSTER
Born: July 28, 1959
Family: He and wife Jacqueline have three children: Amy, 31; Grant, 24; and Hillary, 22.
Alma Mater: Murray State, 1981
Playing Career:
Strong safety and outside linebacker at Murray State, 1977–1980
Coaching Career:
Graduate assistant for Frank Beamer in the latter’s first season as head coach at Murray State in 1981.
1983–86: Murray State, linebackers/special teams
1987–92: Virginia Tech, linebackers
1993–94: Virginia Tech, linebackers/special teams
1995: Virginia Tech, co-defensive coordinator
1996–present: Virginia Tech, defensive coordinator
Awards:
2006 Frank Broyles Award as top assistant coach in college football
2000 American Football Coaches Association’s Division I-A Defensive Coordinator of the Year Award
VIRGINIA TECH’S 2010 SCHEDULE
Sept. 6 vs. Boise State
Sept. 11 vs. James Madison
Sept. 18 vs. East Carolina
Sept. 25 at Boston College
Oct. 2 at NC State
Oct. 9 vs. Central Michigan
Oct. 16 vs. Wake Forest
Oct. 23 vs. Duke
Nov. 4 vs. Georgia Tech
Nov. 13 at North Carolina
Nov. 20 at Miami
Nov. 27 vs. Virginia
Dec. 4 Atlantic vs. Coastal
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