Dear FBS Community:
My bad. I feel like I sounded like a bitter Florida State fan calling for Bobby Bowden's head in my last post. The point I was trying to make - and failed miserably making - was that Frank Beamer's loyalty to Bryan Stinespring was (and still is) a huge problem standing in the way of our program becoming one of the programs that's mentioned in the Florida/Texas/USC/Oklahoma/LSU rarefied air.
Here are a few things I would like to clarify:
1) Beamer has earned the right to stay at the helm of the Hokies for as long as he wants. And then some. He made this program what it is, and it was a program that used to lose to Cincinnati on Homecoming and lost 77-6 to Alabama back when Bear Bryant scheduled us as a cupcake team.
2) Bryan Stinespring is hands-down, statistically the worst offensive coordinator to both: a) coach for the better part of a decade, and b) not be related by blood to the head coach.
3) Since I've been at Virginia Tech, I've seen quite a few great players. My first "game" was the Corso lightning game. I've seen both Vick brothers pull off some of the most ridiculous plays that one has ever seen in a football game, Kevin Jones run hundreds of yards laterally before breaking a 50 yard run to the end zone, Lee Suggs, Andre Davis score 3 TDs in 6 minutes, Eddie Royal out-athlete every other player on the field, Macho Harris, D-Hall, Ernest Wilford make up dropping a 2-point with two years of phenomenal play, and countless other offensive players who have become NFL stars. So I say this without hesitation and knowing full well the gravity of what it means: Ryan Williams is the most naturally talented player I have seen in my time as a Hokie, and if an offensive coordinator cannot score 35 points a game with RW as the anchor and Tyrod Taylor and our talented bevvy of receivers, it's time to quit and just start letting the PlayStation pick the game for you.
4) Bud Foster will not stay around forever. He's already interested in the Memphis job, and by the end of the year, Maryland, Virginia, Louisville, and Colorado will probably all be open, if Bud decides that he is waiting for a BCS-AQ job. There is an outside chance that Arizona State or Texas A&M will be open, and if Brian Kelly keeps flying high, Cincinnati may be an open position, too. While there are capable people who can take over for him, they are not he. By not replacing Stinespring, Beamer is squandering a narrowing window of opportunity to fill the empty trophy case in the Merriman Athletic Center. I've seen that trophy case, and it's glorious. It needs to be filled.
5) Seriously, I don't want Frank Beamer fired/muzzled/retired/whatevered, and if I came off as saying that mea culpa mea culpa mea culpa. But I continue to stand by (what I wanted to be my) original assertion: Beamer is the head coach, and ultimately, as the CEO of the program, at some point, when faced with 8 years of struggling returns from the VP of Offense, if he keeps him around, it starts being his fault. So, while Stinespring is the ultimate problem, Frank's refusal to relieve Stiney of his offensive play-calling and scheme-making duties ultimately starts to fall on Frank. Maybe not after 3 or 4 years, but when you get to 8 years of steadily declining offense...
Frank Beamer is not the problem, but Frank's refusal to reassign Bryan Stinespring's offensive coordinator duties to someone else who can handle it is the problem.
PS My bad.
