Frank Beamer is entering his 21st year as the head football coach at Virginia Tech, and with a solid foundation in place, he continues to take the Hokies to higher levels.
After being named the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in each of Tech's first two seasons in the league, Beamer quietly took on one of his biggest challenges in 2006 and helped turn it into another success story.
The Tech head man and his staff started the season with a young team that had an offensive line depleted by graduation, a new quarterback, new tight ends and a lack of proven depth on both sides of the ball. He helped mold that young group into a cohesive unit which finished the regular season with six-straight wins, a Chick-fil-A Bowl berth and 10 victories. Tech is now one of just three Division I-A teams that have posted 10 or more wins in each of the last three seasons.
There's no doubt, Virginia Tech couldn't have asked for anyone better than Frank Beamer to guide its football program into the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 2005, he led the Hokies to an 11-2 record, the ACC Coastal Division title, a spot in the inaugural league championship game and a bowl game. In 2004, Beamer guided another young Tech team - picked to finish sixth in the ACC - to a league title and a BCS Bowl. That team also won the league's 2004 Fall Sportsmanship Award for football, yet another tribute to the program Beamer and his staff have built.
When Beamer accepted the job as head football coach at his alma mater in 1987, his goal was for the Virginia Tech football program to reach a consistent level of excellence. The Hokies have come a long way since that day, and along the way, Beamer has become one of the most respected and successful coaches on the college football scene.
Beamer, who was the consensus national coach of the year in 1999, is ranked third among active Division I-A coaches in victories with 198 over 26 seasons as a head coach. His Tech teams have posted a 142-42 record over the past 14 seasons and appeared in bowl games each year during that span, a feat equaled by just three other schools. Prior to winning the 2004 ACC championship, he guided the Hokies to three BIG EAST Conference championships and in 1999 helped direct Tech to the national championship game. Beamer's Hokies have earned the highest national rankings in the program's history, spending 78 weeks in the Top 10 of The Associated Press poll over the past eight seasons. During one stretch that ended in 2003, Tech was ranked in 84 consecutive AP polls.
Winning has been just part of Frank Beamer's success story. He and his staff have earned a reputation for getting the most out of their players.
In 2000, Beamer and his staff directed Tech to an 11-1 record after opening the season with eight new starters on defense and an all-new lineup in the kicking game. During the 2001 season, the Hokies posted an 8-4 record and appeared in the Top 20 every week despite having to fill four offensive line spots, the quarterback job vacated by sensational underclassman Michael Vick and the tailback spot left open when All-America running back Lee Suggs was lost for the season with an injury. In 2002, the Hokies were 10-4 despite attacking one of their toughest schedules ever with a young team that featured all-new starters at the defensive tackle, inside linebacker and rover positions, as well as major questions at quarterback and wide receiver.
A spot in the Nokia Sugar Bowl to play No. 1 Florida State for the national championship focused widespread attention on Virginia Tech and its football program following the 1999 season. And although the Hokies fell short in their bid for the national title, they proved that they belong among the top teams in the college ranks.
For his part in the Hokies' magical 1999 season, Beamer earned eight national coach of the year awards. He was named the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year, the GTE Coach of the Year, the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year, the Paul 'Bear' Bryant Coach of the Year, The Associated Press Coach of the Year, the Walter Camp Football Foundation/Street & Smith's Coach of the Year, the Maxwell Football Club Coach of the Year and the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year. He also was named the BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year for the third time.
There have been plenty of other accolades for the Hokies' coach. Prior to the 2005 season, a Seattle Times Poll of more than 40 coaches voted Frank Beamer as the current I-A head coach for whom they had the most respect. Beamer was also selected the fifth-best strategist among current I-A coaches. In a survey of Division I-A football coaches conducted by Bloomberg News in the fall of 2000, Beamer was named the best coach a school could hire to run its football program. When BIG EAST Conference football celebrated its first 10 years of existence in 2000, Beamer was voted the Coach of the Decade by the league's media.
In January 2001, the Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., honored Beamer as the NCAA Coach of the Year. In May of that year, an on-line newspaper named him the best coach currently in the college football ranks because of his ability to place Tech among the nation's elite year in and year out.
Following consecutive 10-2 seasons in 1995 and 1996, Beamer was voted BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year by the league coaches. He was one of five finalists in the voting for the 1995 National Coach of the Year. In 1996, The Sporting News queried writers from around the country and asked them to rate the coaches in various conferences. In the BIG EAST, those writers rated Frank Beamer the best coach on game day, the best in game preparation, the best as a motivator, the best as a teacher, the best in big games and the best overall.
In 1999, The Sporting News ranked the nation's top coaches in terms of their ability to get the most out of their players. Beamer was picked No. 9 in Division I-A. Four of Tech's last six years in the league, TSN rated the Tech coach tops among BIG EAST head coaches. The publication also ranked the Hokies' football coaching staff as the best in the conference four times during that span. Street & Smith's College Football 2002 rated Beamer as the top recruiter in the BIG EAST. In 2004, SI.com selected him coach of the year in the Division I-A ranks.
The rise of the Tech football program has made Beamer a man in demand. It has opened doors to places he may never have dreamed of as a youngster growing up in Southwest Virginia.
In September 2000, Beamer was invited to the White House where he joined a select group that stood in the Rose Garden behind then-President Bill Clinton as he made remarks on the Conservation and Reinvestment Act. Beamer was one of the keynote speakers at the American Football Coaches Association Convention in 2000, and in April, 2001, he joined former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Lady Margaret Thatcher, as one of the featured speakers at SUCCESS 2001, one of the nation's most popular business seminars.
In April 2004, Beamer was presented a Humanitarian Award by the National Conference for Community and Justice for his contributions to fostering justice, equity and community in the Roanoke Valley. An avid NASCAR fan, Beamer has been the official starter for races at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway.
Beamer's success has also made him a much sought-after coach. In recent years, he has been pursued by numerous other schools and has drawn interest from professional football teams. But in the end, his loyalty has remained with the Hokies.
Beamer has always put Virginia Tech first - ever since he starred as a defensive back for the Hokies in his undergraduate days in the late 1960s, and surely throughout his 20 years as head coach of the Hokies. He has given the Tech program a sense of stability enjoyed by just a handful of other Division I-A schools. With the retirement of Air Force's Fisher DeBerry, only two other active Division I-A head coaches - Joe Paterno (41 yrs., Penn State) and Bobby Bowden (31 yrs., Florida State) - have been at their current school longer than Beamer.
In 1990, Beamer received a new contract and a substantial pay raise. He refused the raise, however, until such time that all classified and faculty employees of the university could have the same opportunity for pay raises. Most state salaries had been frozen at the time. He was offered a pay increase again last year, but did not sign until his assistant coaches were taken care of first.
Another indication of Beamer's love for the university came on the night he was inducted into The Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. He called it the biggest honor of his entire career. With the induction, he became the first active coach at the university to be honored in that fashion.
Beamer's overall record at Tech now stands at 156-82-2. He became Tech's winningest football coach during the 1997 campaign. Counting six years as head coach at Murray State prior to joining the Hokies, Beamer's overall 26-year record is 198-105-4.
The 60-year-old Beamer, the first alumnus to guide the Hokies since the 1940s, took over the Tech reins from Bill Dooley in January 1987. He began work a few days after the Hokies had beaten North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl. It took a while for him to get the Hokies moving in the right direction because the football program was hit with NCAA sanctions at the time.
But everything came together in the 1990s. The Techmen finished 9-3 in 1993 after beating Indiana, 45-20, in a wild Independence Bowl game. Tech followed up with an 8-4 season in 1994, losing to Tennessee, 45-23, in the Gator Bowl.
The Tech teams in 1995 and 1996 were among the best in school history. The 1995 team swept the BIG EAST Conference championship outright and the 1996 club tied for the title with Syracuse and Miami.
The 1995 team was 9-2 during the regular season and then came up with a stirring 28-10 victory over Texas in the Sugar Bowl. The 1996 team went 10-1 during the regular season and lost to powerful Nebraska, 41-21, in the Orange Bowl after giving the Cornhuskers a fierce battle for three quarters.
The Hokies fell to 7-5 in 1997 and were beaten badly by North Carolina in the Gator Bowl, 42-3. But they came right back with a 9-3 mark in 1998 that included an impressive 38-7 victory over Alabama in the inaugural Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn.
The two winningest seasons in school history followed in 1999 and 2000 with the Hokies posting back-to-back 11-1 records. Tech registered its first-ever 11-0 regular-season record in '99 before losing its national championship battle with FSU.
In 2000, the Hokies' only blemish was a loss at Miami in the ninth game of the season. Both seasons, Tech climbed as high as No. 2 in The Associated Press poll, finishing No. 2 in '99 and No. 6 in 2000. The Hokies climbed as high as No. 5 in the 2001 AP poll and finished 18th. In 2002, Tech was ranked as high as No. 3 in the AP poll after posting consecutive wins over nationally ranked LSU (14th), Marshall (16th) and Texas A&M (19th). The Hokies' youthful team finished the season 18th.
During the 2003 season, the Hokies ended No. 2 Miami's 39-game regular-season winning streak with a 31-7 victory. The Canes were the highest-ranked opponent Tech had ever beaten on the gridiron. The Hokies climbed as high as No. 3 in the polls before falling victim to inconsistent play during the final month of the season. Still, Tech earned eight wins for the 10th time in 11 seasons.
The 2004 season saw the Hokies bounce back to win their last eight games of the regular season, including victories against three nationally ranked teams - No. 6 West Virginia, No. 16 Virginia and No. 9 Miami.
Beamer's early Tech teams also registered many exciting victories. One of the most impressive came in 1990 when the Hokies capped the year with a 38-13 victory over arch-rival Virginia before a crowd of 54,157, which at the time was the largest ever to see a college football game in the commonwealth of Virginia. During the 1989 season, Tech knocked off ninth-ranked West Virginia and star quarterback Major Harris, 12-10, in Morgantown.
During his undergraduate days at Tech, Beamer started three years as a cornerback and played on the Hokies' 1966 and 1968 Liberty Bowl teams. He received a B.S. in distributive education from Tech in 1969 and a master's in guidance from Radford in 1972. Then came the start of the Beamer coaching career.
He began as an assistant at Radford High School from 1969 through 1971. Then, after one season as a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland, he went to The Citadel where he worked five seasons under Bobby Ross and one year under Art Baker. His last two years at The Citadel, Beamer was the defensive coordinator.
In 1979, Beamer went to Murray State as the defensive coordinator under Mike Gottfried. He was named head coach at Murray State in 1981 and went on to compile a six-year record of 42 wins, 23 losses and two ties.
The Tech coach was born in Mt. Airy, N.C., and grew up in Hillsville, Va. At Hillsville High, he earned 11 varsity letters as a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball.
Beamer is married to the former Cheryl Oakley of Richmond, Va. They have two children, Shane, a former member of his dad's football team at Tech and now an assistant at the University of South Carolina; and daughter Casey, a 2003 graduate of Virginia Tech.
Frank Beamer is entering his 21st year as the head football coach at Virginia Tech, and with a solid foundation in place, he continues to take the Hokies to higher levels.
After being named the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in each of Tech's first two seasons in the league, Beamer quietly took on one of his biggest challenges in 2006 and helped turn it into another success story.
The Tech head man and his staff started the season with a young team that had an offensive line depleted by graduation, a new quarterback, new tight ends and a lack of proven depth on both sides of the ball. He helped mold that young group into a cohesive unit which finished the regular season with six-straight wins, a Chick-fil-A Bowl berth and 10 victories. Tech is now one of just three Division I-A teams that have posted 10 or more wins in each of the last three seasons.
There's no doubt, Virginia Tech couldn't have asked for anyone better than Frank Beamer to guide its football program into the Atlantic Coast Conference. In 2005, he led the Hokies to an 11-2 record, the ACC Coastal Division title, a spot in the inaugural league championship game and a bowl game. In 2004, Beamer guided another young Tech team - picked to finish sixth in the ACC - to a league title and a BCS Bowl. That team also won the league's 2004 Fall Sportsmanship Award for football, yet another tribute to the program Beamer and his staff have built.
When Beamer accepted the job as head football coach at his alma mater in 1987, his goal was for the Virginia Tech football program to reach a consistent level of excellence. The Hokies have come a long way since that day, and along the way, Beamer has become one of the most respected and successful coaches on the college football scene.
Beamer, who was the consensus national coach of the year in 1999, is ranked third among active Division I-A coaches in victories with 198 over 26 seasons as a head coach. His Tech teams have posted a 142-42 record over the past 14 seasons and appeared in bowl games each year during that span, a feat equaled by just three other schools. Prior to winning the 2004 ACC championship, he guided the Hokies to three BIG EAST Conference championships and in 1999 helped direct Tech to the national championship game. Beamer's Hokies have earned the highest national rankings in the program's history, spending 78 weeks in the Top 10 of The Associated Press poll over the past eight seasons. During one stretch that ended in 2003, Tech was ranked in 84 consecutive AP polls.
Winning has been just part of Frank Beamer's success story. He and his staff have earned a reputation for getting the most out of their players.
In 2000, Beamer and his staff directed Tech to an 11-1 record after opening the season with eight new starters on defense and an all-new lineup in the kicking game. During the 2001 season, the Hokies posted an 8-4 record and appeared in the Top 20 every week despite having to fill four offensive line spots, the quarterback job vacated by sensational underclassman Michael Vick and the tailback spot left open when All-America running back Lee Suggs was lost for the season with an injury. In 2002, the Hokies were 10-4 despite attacking one of their toughest schedules ever with a young team that featured all-new starters at the defensive tackle, inside linebacker and rover positions, as well as major questions at quarterback and wide receiver.
A spot in the Nokia Sugar Bowl to play No. 1 Florida State for the national championship focused widespread attention on Virginia Tech and its football program following the 1999 season. And although the Hokies fell short in their bid for the national title, they proved that they belong among the top teams in the college ranks.
For his part in the Hokies' magical 1999 season, Beamer earned eight national coach of the year awards. He was named the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year, the GTE Coach of the Year, the Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year, the Paul 'Bear' Bryant Coach of the Year, The Associated Press Coach of the Year, the Walter Camp Football Foundation/Street & Smith's Coach of the Year, the Maxwell Football Club Coach of the Year and the Woody Hayes Coach of the Year. He also was named the BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year for the third time.
There have been plenty of other accolades for the Hokies' coach. Prior to the 2005 season, a Seattle Times Poll of more than 40 coaches voted Frank Beamer as the current I-A head coach for whom they had the most respect. Beamer was also selected the fifth-best strategist among current I-A coaches. In a survey of Division I-A football coaches conducted by Bloomberg News in the fall of 2000, Beamer was named the best coach a school could hire to run its football program. When BIG EAST Conference football celebrated its first 10 years of existence in 2000, Beamer was voted the Coach of the Decade by the league's media.
In January 2001, the Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C., honored Beamer as the NCAA Coach of the Year. In May of that year, an on-line newspaper named him the best coach currently in the college football ranks because of his ability to place Tech among the nation's elite year in and year out.
Following consecutive 10-2 seasons in 1995 and 1996, Beamer was voted BIG EAST Conference Coach of the Year by the league coaches. He was one of five finalists in the voting for the 1995 National Coach of the Year. In 1996, The Sporting News queried writers from around the country and asked them to rate the coaches in various conferences. In the BIG EAST, those writers rated Frank Beamer the best coach on game day, the best in game preparation, the best as a motivator, the best as a teacher, the best in big games and the best overall.
In 1999, The Sporting News ranked the nation's top coaches in terms of their ability to get the most out of their players. Beamer was picked No. 9 in Division I-A. Four of Tech's last six years in the league, TSN rated the Tech coach tops among BIG EAST head coaches. The publication also ranked the Hokies' football coaching staff as the best in the conference four times during that span. Street & Smith's College Football 2002 rated Beamer as the top recruiter in the BIG EAST. In 2004, SI.com selected him coach of the year in the Division I-A ranks.
The rise of the Tech football program has made Beamer a man in demand. It has opened doors to places he may never have dreamed of as a youngster growing up in Southwest Virginia.
In September 2000, Beamer was invited to the White House where he joined a select group that stood in the Rose Garden behind then-President Bill Clinton as he made remarks on the Conservation and Reinvestment Act. Beamer was one of the keynote speakers at the American Football Coaches Association Convention in 2000, and in April, 2001, he joined former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Lady Margaret Thatcher, as one of the featured speakers at SUCCESS 2001, one of the nation's most popular business seminars.
In April 2004, Beamer was presented a Humanitarian Award by the National Conference for Community and Justice for his contributions to fostering justice, equity and community in the Roanoke Valley. An avid NASCAR fan, Beamer has been the official starter for races at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond International Raceway.
Beamer's success has also made him a much sought-after coach. In recent years, he has been pursued by numerous other schools and has drawn interest from professional football teams. But in the end, his loyalty has remained with the Hokies.
Beamer has always put Virginia Tech first - ever since he starred as a defensive back for the Hokies in his undergraduate days in the late 1960s, and surely throughout his 20 years as head coach of the Hokies. He has given the Tech program a sense of stability enjoyed by just a handful of other Division I-A schools. With the retirement of Air Force's Fisher DeBerry, only two other active Division I-A head coaches - Joe Paterno (41 yrs., Penn State) and Bobby Bowden (31 yrs., Florida State) - have been at their current school longer than Beamer.
In 1990, Beamer received a new contract and a substantial pay raise. He refused the raise, however, until such time that all classified and faculty employees of the university could have the same opportunity for pay raises. Most state salaries had been frozen at the time. He was offered a pay increase again last year, but did not sign until his assistant coaches were taken care of first.
Another indication of Beamer's love for the university came on the night he was inducted into The Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. He called it the biggest honor of his entire career. With the induction, he became the first active coach at the university to be honored in that fashion.
Beamer's overall record at Tech now stands at 156-82-2. He became Tech's winningest football coach during the 1997 campaign. Counting six years as head coach at Murray State prior to joining the Hokies, Beamer's overall 26-year record is 198-105-4.
The 60-year-old Beamer, the first alumnus to guide the Hokies since the 1940s, took over the Tech reins from Bill Dooley in January 1987. He began work a few days after the Hokies had beaten North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl. It took a while for him to get the Hokies moving in the right direction because the football program was hit with NCAA sanctions at the time.
But everything came together in the 1990s. The Techmen finished 9-3 in 1993 after beating Indiana, 45-20, in a wild Independence Bowl game. Tech followed up with an 8-4 season in 1994, losing to Tennessee, 45-23, in the Gator Bowl.
The Tech teams in 1995 and 1996 were among the best in school history. The 1995 team swept the BIG EAST Conference championship outright and the 1996 club tied for the title with Syracuse and Miami.
The 1995 team was 9-2 during the regular season and then came up with a stirring 28-10 victory over Texas in the Sugar Bowl. The 1996 team went 10-1 during the regular season and lost to powerful Nebraska, 41-21, in the Orange Bowl after giving the Cornhuskers a fierce battle for three quarters.
The Hokies fell to 7-5 in 1997 and were beaten badly by North Carolina in the Gator Bowl, 42-3. But they came right back with a 9-3 mark in 1998 that included an impressive 38-7 victory over Alabama in the inaugural Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tenn.
The two winningest seasons in school history followed in 1999 and 2000 with the Hokies posting back-to-back 11-1 records. Tech registered its first-ever 11-0 regular-season record in '99 before losing its national championship battle with FSU.
In 2000, the Hokies' only blemish was a loss at Miami in the ninth game of the season. Both seasons, Tech climbed as high as No. 2 in The Associated Press poll, finishing No. 2 in '99 and No. 6 in 2000. The Hokies climbed as high as No. 5 in the 2001 AP poll and finished 18th. In 2002, Tech was ranked as high as No. 3 in the AP poll after posting consecutive wins over nationally ranked LSU (14th), Marshall (16th) and Texas A&M (19th). The Hokies' youthful team finished the season 18th.
During the 2003 season, the Hokies ended No. 2 Miami's 39-game regular-season winning streak with a 31-7 victory. The Canes were the highest-ranked opponent Tech had ever beaten on the gridiron. The Hokies climbed as high as No. 3 in the polls before falling victim to inconsistent play during the final month of the season. Still, Tech earned eight wins for the 10th time in 11 seasons.
The 2004 season saw the Hokies bounce back to win their last eight games of the regular season, including victories against three nationally ranked teams - No. 6 West Virginia, No. 16 Virginia and No. 9 Miami.
Beamer's early Tech teams also registered many exciting victories. One of the most impressive came in 1990 when the Hokies capped the year with a 38-13 victory over arch-rival Virginia before a crowd of 54,157, which at the time was the largest ever to see a college football game in the commonwealth of Virginia. During the 1989 season, Tech knocked off ninth-ranked West Virginia and star quarterback Major Harris, 12-10, in Morgantown.
During his undergraduate days at Tech, Beamer started three years as a cornerback and played on the Hokies' 1966 and 1968 Liberty Bowl teams. He received a B.S. in distributive education from Tech in 1969 and a master's in guidance from Radford in 1972. Then came the start of the Beamer coaching career.
He began as an assistant at Radford High School from 1969 through 1971. Then, after one season as a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland, he went to The Citadel where he worked five seasons under Bobby Ross and one year under Art Baker. His last two years at The Citadel, Beamer was the defensive coordinator.
In 1979, Beamer went to Murray State as the defensive coordinator under Mike Gottfried. He was named head coach at Murray State in 1981 and went on to compile a six-year record of 42 wins, 23 losses and two ties.
The Tech coach was born in Mt. Airy, N.C., and grew up in Hillsville, Va. At Hillsville High, he earned 11 varsity letters as a three-sport athlete in football, basketball and baseball.
Beamer is married to the former Cheryl Oakley of Richmond, Va. They have two children, Shane, a former member of his dad's football team at Tech and now an assistant at the University of South Carolina; and daughter Casey, a 2003 graduate of Virginia Tech.
Roth Report
