![]() ![]() Coach Beamer would always say, “If you take care of the little things, the big things will happen.” Each action - every sprint, every bench-press rep and every hour spent watching film - builds on the last one until you reach your goal. The biggest thing I took away from my time there was the importance of getting the little things right. I was the first of four brothers to play for the Hokies, and each of us benefited from our time in Blacksburg in different ways. That’s bigger than football, and it sums up why Coach Beamer is so respected at Virginia Tech. I was just a kid trying his best, and they recognized that and nurtured it. Even when I knew I wasn’t playing well, the coaching staff didn’t quit on me. ![]() I can’t express what an impact that had on me. It’s all going to come together for you.” You just keep preparing for games the right way and continue putting yourself in the right positions to make plays. I have confidence that you’re going to come up big for us when we need you. To make things worse, we lost two more close games after that.ĭuring that losing streak, Coach Beamer pulled me aside during practice one day and said, “Look, you’re playing well. When the dust settled, he had two touchdown catches against me, and we ended up losing our first game of the season in an upset. I was coming off of a few solid performances in our previous games, and I matched up pretty well size-wise, so Coach Beamer decided to put me on Fitzgerald for most of the game. He was a problem, but I was confident in my ability to minimize his production against us. Now, Pitt had this freshman All-American wide receiver you might have heard of named Larry Fitzgerald. We were on a roll and had a home game coming up against the University of Pittsburgh. ![]() In 2002, I was a redshirt sophomore at Virginia Tech and we were the third-ranked team in the country. There are so many things I can say about how Coach has made me a better person, but I’ll sum it all up simply like this:įrom the bottom of my heart, thank you, Coach. This is a time for all of us to reflect on and admire the people who laid the foundation for what Virginia Tech football is today. He assembled a group of extremely hard-working people who approached the game the same way he did, and it brought a lot of stability to the program. I want to make sure proper credit is given to Coach Beamer’s coaching staff. He really did treat his players like sons, and we knew deep down he wanted what was best for us. He had the capacity to be stern, but he was also forgiving. It was how he handled us when we weren’t at our best that made us respect him. He provided a presence in our lives that many us had never had before. But I’ll always be grateful for the way he guided all of us as young men. I’ve experienced a lot of things with Coach Beamer throughout the years - plenty of highs and a few lows. But I don’t want to focus on his numbers and accolades so much as what made him such a great leader. To be good at anything for many decades is an accomplishment, but to survive as a head coach in one of college football’s toughest conferences for 29 years is truly special. Quite simply, Frank Beamer got the job done. Just as we suspected, people like the guy. To do this, we asked several former players (and numerous Fuller brothers) to share how Coach Beamer and his staff impacted their lives. It’s widely known that Coach Beamer is one of the most respected figures in college sports, but we wanted to find out how he guided the individuals surrounding him. The Beamer family also has a vacation home on Lake Oconee.A fter 29 seasons, 234 victories and countless special teams drills, Frank Beamer is coaching his final game at Virginia Tech. The Gamecocks had some of their strongest recruiting classes of the Spurrier era while Beamer was there, signing Jadeveon Clowney, Marcus Lattimore and Connor Shaw, among others. Recruiting has also been a strong suit for Beamer, who had the recruiting coordinator title at different points at Virginia Tech, South Carolina and Mississippi State. He left in 2011 to join his father’s staff at Virginia Tech, where he was running backs coach. Three years later Beamer joined Steve Spurrier’s staff at South Carolina, coaching outside linebackers and special teams. Then Beamer moved on to be a GA at Tennessee from 2001-03 before getting joining Mississippi State in 2004 as cornerbacks coach. His first job out of college was as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech under George O’Leary. While he is an alum of Virginia Tech, where his father built the program into a national championship contender, Shane Beamer knows Georgia and the SEC well. But Mark Richt, despite not doing so in his 15 years at Georgia, has hired his own special teams coordinator at Miami, Todd Hartley, who had been Georgia’s recruiting coordinator. ![]() Georgia never had a single coach overseeing special teams, so this will be a change. ![]()
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