Beamer from 1995-2000 was at the top of his game and was an amazing coach that enabled VT to punch far above our weight.

My theory is that Beamer not going to UNC was ultimately a bad thing for VT football. To put it more simply, when Beamer became bigger than the job, it held VT back at a time when we could have jumped to the top.

Proof:
The next three years after flirting with UNC, we we 4-3, 3-4, 4-3 in the Big East and our best bowl was the Gator Bowl.

It was only after moving to the ACC that we had the eight year streak of 10+ wins. BUT it should be noted that all of those 10+ win seasons had either 13 or 14 games total. That is very different from the 11-1 and 10-2 years from '95-'00. The fact is that the ACC was exceptionally weak for almost a decade and it masked our overall flaws. During this run we had 2 Sugar and 3 Orange bowls against top competition. Our record was 1-4 with the only win coming against non-P5 Cincinnati.

Now, we don't know for sure what coach would have been hired in his place or how they would have done. But what we do know is that Beamer got comfortable after the UNC incident and ignored any views that disagreed with his own. And after that point he slowly became more cautious every year. Ultimately his staff choices and his scheme choices held VT back. You could probably put any VT team from 2001-2015 against each other and they would have a 50-50 or 60-40 chance of winning. They were basically all flawed and nothing like his prime teams.

The UNC incident was really the end of the peak Beamer. And as a result, VT coasted for 15 years with good but not great results, with most success primarily due to decent recruiting and player development and a HOF DC. And the successor was hired for culture fit (because of all those Beamer years) but without the recruiting or program management qualifications and here we are at 4-3 in year 5.

Note: Frank Beamer is a great guy, and a Hokie, and I enjoyed having him as a coach. But I can also judge his tenure objectively based on results.
[Post edited by HokieAl at 11/11/2020 12:44AM]