Written by Matt Zemek at Bloguin
Age is just a number, they say.
You’re only as old as you feel, they say.
In many ways, those statements will always be true, but in cutthroat professions, getting on in years will introduce its fair share of limitations.
Even the most accomplished head coaches in this era of college football (including one who was subsequently disgraced at the very end of his tenure) were not immune to the effects of Father Time.
Frank Beamer is now confronting those forces at Virginia Tech.
It’s a time of change and turmoil in the ACC Coastal Division. Al Golden enters his most important month as Miami’s head coach, the month which will either save or sack him in Coral Gables. Mike London is a dead coach walking, his days as a college head coach winding down at the University of Virginia. Those two coaches are in immediate danger.
For Virginia Tech, the situation is not quite as urgent in a short-term context. When you’ve won the way Frank Beamer has and have accumulated his combination of goodwill and political leverage, a quick exit should not be expected (even though it’s certainly possible). That having been said, a dreary home-field loss to Pittsburgh this past Saturday — on a day when the Blacksburg weather matched the quality of the game and the mood inside the program — has only intensified the anxieties coursing through Hokie Nation.
It’s impossible to avoid the question: “Can 68-year-old Frank Beamer fix this situation?”
If he can’t, should a legend of the game have the right to step down when he chooses?
This ACC coaching situation is beginning to feel like another ACC coaching situation not too long ago… and there’s irony to be found in that.
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