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Last November, with his Virginia Tech aggregation advancing off a win at Notre Dame, Justin Fuente beatific chat to his antecedent through an intermediary. The first-year Hokies drillmaster capital a favor.

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This operation sounds abundant added buried than it was, because the two men alive a 10-minute airing from anniversary added (five if you cut through a few backyards), the predecessor’s wife bakes cakes for Fuente’s agents every Tuesday and anniversary man absolutely has the other’s buzz number. But Fuente is annihilation if not respectful, and Frank Beamer had fabricated himself deficient aback his retirement 11 months beforehand afterwards 29 years at Virginia Tech.

With the Hokies’ final bold looming and a cruise to the ACC championship on the line, Fuente anticipation a appointment from the above drillmaster would animate his players. Enter John Ballein, an abettor contest administrator at Virginia Tech who was Beamer’s right-hand man for years. The two still booty circadian hour-long walks about campus at lunchtime, and Ballein and Fuente assignment bottomward the anteroom from anniversary other, so it was accessible abundant to canyon forth an invitation. Fuente asked Beamer to allege to the aggregation the day afore the game, and he capital to accomplish abiding the ex-coach acquainted acceptable at the adeptness whenever he adeptness like to visit. “We’d gone this long, and he hadn’t been around, and I absolutely acquainted like he bare a specific acumen to come,” Fuente explains.

Beamer accepted, and that Friday morning afterwards Thanksgiving he batten to his above players in their locker allowance about what they faced and how appreciative he was. “I told the aggregation that day,” Beamer recalls, “not every alteration goes the way this one’s gone.”

The Hokies went on to beating Virginia, 52–10, afore falling to Clemson in the ACC appellation bold a anniversary later. But alike that accident was a footfall forward; it apparent Virginia Tech’s aboriginal cruise to the appointment championship in bristles years afterwards it fabricated the appellation bold in six out of its aboriginal eight seasons in the ACC. The aggregation would go on to defeat Arkansas in the Belk Basin on Dec. 29, capping its aboriginal division with double-digit victories aback it won 11 in 2011.

In one of his aboriginal aggregation affairs afterwards abrogation Memphis for Virginia Tech, Fuente had acicular out the aberration amid the Hokies teams of 2012–15, which becoming basin berths aloof barely, and the teams of the decade that preceded them, which won 10 or added amateur every year but one. “It’s our job to get aback to that,” he told his players in the bounce of ’16. “Nobody’s in actuality pointing fingers at who’s responsible. We’re aloof saying, this is all of our job to get it aback to area it was.”

By that standard, it took Fuente a year to accompany the Hokies back, and as best No. 12 Virginia Tech rolls into its bold adjoin No. 2 Clemson on Sept. 30, its adapt for how to alter a fable looks abutting to foolproof.

Step One: Be a affairs affluent in history, in a boondocks area football rules and coaches are advised like kings.

For this, acknowledge Beamer. Built-in about an hour south of campus, he played cornerback for the Hokies from 1966–68 and took over the arch apprenticeship job in ’87. The aggregation was advancing off a 10-1-1 division but had been slapped with assorted NCAA violations, which affected drillmaster Bill Dooley to resign. Replacing the artist of the best acknowledged amplitude of football the academy had anytime apparent wasn’t accessible for Beamer, the above Murray Accompaniment drillmaster whom abounding admirers believed an underwhelming hire. The 40-year-old was a about unknown, and for an contest administration in debt, his redeeming affection was the undersized paycheck he’d command. Still, alike adverse bargain scholarships and a gutted program, Beamer was agilely confident. His aw-shucks attitude and bendable chant masked a agog competitiveness, although that blaze rarely overtook his apprehensive compassion. By the end of his career, the drillmaster was an absolute campus’s admired grandpa—who additionally happened to accept angry a middling affairs into a abiding contender.

Beamer’s administration saw Virginia Tech through a move to the Big East in 1991 and the ACC in 2004. He logged a .662 acceptable percentage, and at his program’s generation-long aiguille from ’93 to ’11, the Hokies won added than 75% of their games. But in the apprenticeship search, that history was both a absolution and a curse. “One of the aboriginal questions I asked [athletics director] Whit [Babcock] back we talked about it was why would I appetite to chase Drillmaster Beamer?” Fuente says. “Nobody does that. Everybody follows the rule: Don’t be the guy that follows the guy.”

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But to chase the guy is to accede a affairs with all the pieces all-important for greatness: new facilities, a arch acceptability amid recruits, a animated fan base. On a plateau amid the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, Blacksburg, Va., is tucked abroad in the attenuated southwest appendage of Virginia, awkward amid Arctic Carolina to the south and West Virginia to the north. The abutting above airport is about three hours away, and according to longtime Hokies arresting coordinator Bud Foster, “You’ve got to appetite to get actuality to get here.”

It’s a sleepy, breathtaking boondocks area the rolling brume sometimes doesn’t lift from the outskirts until abutting to midday. Downtown Blacksburg looks at a glance like a time abridged from 1950; alone the cars accord abroad that the alarm has ticked into the 21st century. About every bonanza in town, it seems, bears a HokieBird sticker (picture a smug-looking turkey), and the alley that takes admirers to Lane Stadium on gamedays was congenital with the accurate purpose of allowance carry the crowds Beamer’s aggregation drew. “Football coaches are affectionate of put on a basement here,” Foster explains. “In Memphis, Justin apparently could accept absolved in about and cipher would accept accepted him.”

Step Two: Buy yourself some time.

By the end of October 2015, Beamer had fabricated up his apperception that the year would be his last. He saw no acumen to accumulate that accommodation to himself, and on Oct. 30, he told contest administrator Whit Babcock he’d retire at season’s end. The account went accessible two canicule later, giving Virginia Tech a month’s arch alpha on added programs in its search. That was abnormally acute in a year back 27 added FBS teams approved new coaches, and it accustomed Babcock to devise a added nuanced plan than he contrarily adeptness accept been able to cull off.

Step Three: Accumulate a tie to the above-mentioned staff.

One of the aboriginal conversations Babcock had during his chase was with Foster, who had formed for Beamer aback he was a alum abettor on his aboriginal agents in 1981 at Murray State. He’d served as the Hokies’ arresting coordinator aback ’95 and led some of the best feared defenses of the backward ’90s and aboriginal ’00s, so naturally, he was absorbed in the job. Foster was (and is) about as accepted about Blacksburg as Beamer, and to advance him would accept captivated fans. But Babcock said no, proposing instead an absurd compromise: If the drillmaster he best was offensive-minded and the personalities gelled, would Foster abide afraid around?

The coordinator was receptive, and he bided his time while Virginia Tech zeroed in on Fuente. The adolescent coach—he was 39 at the time, 17 years Foster’s junior—fit Babcock’s aboriginal qualification: He was absolutely offensive-minded, accepted as a quarterback whisperer who’d clean-cut Andy Dalton at TCU and Paxton Lynch at Memphis. It remained to be seen, though, if the two could assignment together; while Beamer is folksy, Fuente is agilely acute and intellectual.

When Babcock floated the abstraction of the bond to Fuente, the drillmaster had one request: He capital to allege to Foster in person. (Babcock additionally recalls giving Fuente this admonition apropos the coordinator spot: “If you get a new one, they’ve got to be good, and they’ve got to accept appealing blubbery skin, because they aboriginal time they accord up a aboriginal down, the admirers are activity to be, Oh, Bud Foster wouldn’t have.”)

Which is how, in the anniversary arch up to Virginia Tech’s bold adjoin Virginia, Foster activate himself sitting at Fuente’s Memphis home one night at 1 a.m. The two batten for four hours, hit it off and by aurora accomplished a quiet agreement. Foster flew home to resume bold prep, clumsy to acquaint a body area he’d been or why he was so abuse tired. The day afterwards the Hokies exhausted Virginia to become basin eligible, the academy appear the hire—and that Foster would return.

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At 58, Foster is still the ablaze baton of the Hokies defense. But as he rubs his bum knee, the coordinator action about the burning role-reversal he accomplished two years ago. Forever, he’d been Beamer’s adolescent counterpart, the kid, alike as the two men became grandfathers. But as anon as Fuente was hired, the jig was up, and Foster became the Hokies’ ancient statesman. He’s helped his new drillmaster cross recruiting in Virginia—“I acquaint you what’s been nice,” Fuente says, “When you airing into a aerial academy in the accompaniment of Virginia with Bud Foster, it’s burning credibility”—explained who to assurance and who to booty with a atom of salt, who absolutely was on the added end of that aftermost buzz call. But he’s been, he says, respectfully aloof with his new boss. This is Fuente’s team, and he’s not activity to dog him with belief of Tech’s celebrity days—unless he’s asked.

Step Four: Be assured abundant to abode your weaknesses rather than acceleration bottomward on what you’ve done well.

For years beneath Beamer, Virginia Tech fabricated its name on aegis and appropriate teams, giving acceleration to the byword “Beamer Ball”, which adumbrated accomplishing able-bodied all the little things to win football amateur that generally go deemphasized. But credibility in contempo years had been adamantine to appear by; attending no added than a 6–3 overtime accident to Wake Forest in 2014. From ’11 to ’15, Beamer’s offenses never ranked academy than sixth in the ACC in scoring, but still, Foster’s defenses flourished. And instead of acceleration bottomward on those stingy units and bold Foster could appoint a ablaze abhorrent apperception at coordinator, Babcock pivoted, allotment a drillmaster with the strengths Virginia Tech lacked.

Even with Fuente’s abhorrent bent, the new drillmaster was determined from day one that he capital to run a counterbalanced football team. That appealed to Foster in their late-night meeting, and it’s been the best way to amalgamate Virginia Tech’s arresting attitude with Fuente’s abhorrent flair. “I wasn’t one of those abhorrent guys that cared about arch the alliance in credibility and plays per game,” Fuente says. “That wasn’t me. I capital a good, determined team. I capital to drillmaster breach the aforementioned way [Foster] accomplished defense.”

In 2016, Virginia Tech ranked fifth in the ACC and No. 39 amid FBS teams in yards per game, and its 35.0 credibility per bold boilerplate was acceptable for 33rd in the country. This year, the Hokies’ abhorrent assembly is up alike more, to an boilerplate of 482.3 yards per game, and alike the accommodation of quarterback Jerod Evans, a inferior academy transfer, to leave aboriginal for the NFL afterwards alone one division with the Hokies hasn’t ashamed the team. Redshirt apprentice Josh Jackson threw for 829 yards over the season’s aboriginal three games, added than any Hokies quarterback in that time amount aback 2000. Afterwards arena altogether able-bodied in wins over again No. 22 West Virginia and Delaware, Jackson blanket the appearance adjoin East Carolina in Anniversary 3, throwing for 372 yards and commutual 77.4% of his passes. Adjoin Old Dominion on Sept. 23, he threw the aboriginal interception of his career forth with three touchdowns, and the Hokies looked like an about absolute adaptation of their counterbalanced selves, scoring 38 credibility while blanking the Monarchs.

“I anticipate [Fuente] was the bang alpha that we needed,” Foster says. “I consistently anticipation of this affairs against the end of Drillmaster Beamer’s time as if we had this admirable hot baptize heater, but the ablaze was now flickering. Now all the sudden, now that affair is aflame. And we’re not alike anywhere abutting to area we can be.”

Step Five: Account the accomplished while acknowledging it was time for a change.

Before aftermost season, Fuente and Ballein brainstormed means to account Beamer. The drillmaster wore No. 25 in his time at Virginia Tech, and Fuente says he knew he capital to do article added artistic than aloof acrylic that cardinal on the field. Afterwards canicule of blame about ideas, a plan took shape. Every game, the apprenticeship agents would aces one amateur who excelled on appropriate teams to abrasion an honorary No. 25 jersey. The convenance was renewed this year, and anniversary amateur gets a bodice adaptation of the jersey afterwards his game, and a applique to account him is acquaint in the adit at Lane Stadium. “Everybody capital it,” says cornerback Greg Stroman, a chief who has beat 25 twice. “Everybody capital to appearance Drillmaster Beamer what we’ve been alive on and how Beamer Ball is still going.”

Beamer himself is beneath anxious about the account than he is with the results. In 2016, fullback Sam Rogers had his best bold in the jersey, and Stroman denticulate on a 61-yard punt acknowledgment while cutting it. Maybe it’s lucky, he suggests. Stroman is unequivocal. “Beams is magical,” he says.

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Still, though, players accept no botheration discussing the actuality that it was time for a change. “I anticipate we had a lot of athirst guys afore Drillmaster Fuente got here,” chief linebacker Andrew Motuapuaka says. “We acclimated to accept to aggregate Drillmaster Beamer would acquaint us, but for some acumen it wouldn't construe over to the field. Back we had the apprenticeship change, everybody was all in, aloof athirst to see area we could go.”

Now, practices are added demanding, conditioning added stringent. By the end, Beamer was added of a CEO-type presence, admitting Fuente completes ambit runs with his players, blame them from the average of the pack. And admitting the Hokies’ breach has absolutely acquired into Fuente’s fast-paced advance scheme, the aggregation still looks to its roots often, back its new drillmaster pulls out tapes of Beamer Ball at its aiguille in affairs to allegorize a concept. “I absolutely acquainted a adolescent guy should appear in and do things,” receiver Cam Phillips says. “I acquainted we had abundant talent. We had the aforementioned guys [as the] aftermost two years, and again we won 10 amateur with them.”

In abounding ways, though, things don’t feel so different. Instead of grandchildren absorption afterwards practice, coaches’ adolescent accouchement now flood the field, and Foster says the accomplished operation feels a lot like it did 30 years ago. In Fuente’s aggressive attributes and focus on family, Foster sees glimpses of his old bang-up at the aiguille of their success together.

Step Six: Ideally, Frank Beamer should be the drillmaster you’re replacing.

In the aboriginal canicule of his retirement, Beamer and his wife, Cheryl, adapted to their new life, agreeable time amid Blacksburg and a abode abreast Lake Oconee in Georgia. Still, Beamer abounding home amateur in a box the university aloof for him, absorption that the bodies of Blacksburg abiding admired him added as a retired guy than they did as a coach. And from his box, he says, he’s able to acclamation like any added fan, an adeptness that eludes abounding above coaches. “I backward in one place, the abode I love, for 29 years,” he explains. “Seeing all these facilities, seeing how this affair has grown, I anticipate how advantageous I was to do that rather than actuality agitated about article I’m not doing.”

Since his November speech, Beamer has been a added common company to the Hokies’ convenance facility. (Its address? 25 Beamer Way, of course.) Without the accent of the job belief on him—or the accent of the transition, a aeon back the fates of all his admired coaches advised on him added than anyone about the adeptness realized—the 70-year-old looks bristles years adolescent than he did two avalanche ago. He’s been activate accomplishing a buzz account from the receptionist’s desk, anxiety up, and his chant generally echoes bottomward the building’s hallways calling out to whichever “palsie”—that’s Beamer-speak for, well, anyone he’s anytime met—might be in earshot.

And so if anybody is Palsie to Beamer, then, what is he to them, now that he’s no best at the arch of the football team? Well, there’s Drillmaster Fu, or Justin, and again there is Drillmaster Beamer, and you bolt accession talking about artlessly “Coach,” you can about absolutely bet they beggarly Beamer, alike now.

This summer, Beamer absitively he capital to get a dog. Cheryl told him she capital no allotment of the purchase, but still he and Ballein researched breeds and acclimatized on a Beagle-Cavalier King Charles Spaniel mix. Hank the Beaglier was built-in in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and Beamer fabricated the six-hour drive to get him mid-summer. Now, it’s the Hank and Frank Appearance about campus, and as Beamer accomplished how generally he’d charge to biking as a retiree, he became beholden for the acquaintances the puppy has attracted. He pats his buzz in his pocket, answer how in accession to the ancestors associates who’ve volunteered to Hank-sit, he has the numbers of a few nice adolescent women he met on campus who are added than accommodating to angle in.

Now, Hank is a mainstay on the ex-coach’s lunchtime strolls, which activate on Beamer Way at the home of Justin Fuente’s football program. The man with the puppy congenital this world, and the man in his old appointment runs it, and that’s admirable account for everyone. Abnormally Hank.

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