Come 2016, there will be no more Beamerball at Virginia Tech.
Legendary VT head football coach Frank Beamer announced on Sunday that he will retire at the end of this season.
Beamer, 69, has led the Hokies to 22 consecutive winning seasons and 22 consecutive bowl games, including a trip to the National Championship Game (it was the Sugar Bowl in that year) behind Michael Vick in 1999. He will retire as the winningest active coach in FBS with at least 234 victories.
Beamer won 10 of his bowl game appearances during his tenure, as well as seven conference titles – three in the Big East, and four in the ACC.
This year however, Virginia Tech is only 4-5 and 2-3 in the ACC. They will have to win two of their last three games (at Georgia Tech, vs. North Carolina and at Virginia) to become bowl eligible. In fact, Virginia Tech has struggled in the last several years by their standards, finishing with five losses in each of the past four seasons.
Still, it will undoubtedly be difficult to replace a man who is a five-time conference coach of the year and a former national coach of the year.
As for his replacement, Beamer said in a press conference that he would prefer it be someone from his current staff, either defensive coordinator Bud Foster or his son Shane, who is currently serving as the team’s associate head coach/running backs coach.
