Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 6, 1993 TAG: 9311060150
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Virginia Tech's football coach, coming off a 6-5 record in 1990 and feeling the heartbeat of a maturing program, turned down a chance to become Boston College's coach in December of that year.
"I thought we had turned the corner," he said of the Hokies.
Instead, Tech wandered to a 5-6 mark in '91, then ducked into the shadows in '92 at 2-8-1.
He didn't second-guess his decision, he said, but "it wasn't turning out right."
Yet Beamer was immovable - even when a tactless caller to his home after Tech's late loss to Louisville last year, told that Beamer wasn't home yet, left a message with Beamer's 12-year-old daughter, Casey, that basically said: "I'm thoroughly disgusted with your Daddy."
Beamer's wife, Cheryl, remembers the call, and what happened when Beamer got home.
"If there's one person that can get to him, it's Casey," Cheryl said.
Beamer sat on a coffee table across from the couch where Casey sat, looked at her and said: "Your Daddy's a good coach. Sometimes you're up here" - he raised one hand - "and sometimes you're down here" - he lowered the other hand.
"We're down here right now, but we're going to be back up here again."
Today, No. 25 Tech visits - of all teams - Boston College (noon, WSLS Channel 10), and a victory would guarantee the Hokies their best won-lost record in Beamer's seven years at the school. Even if Tech (6-2 overall, 3-2 in the Big East Conference) loses, it has two more shots at a seventh victory and potential bowl bid.
You might call it deferred payback for that decision three winters ago.
"It is funny that it comes down to this game," Cheryl Beamer said. "I think it was coming. It's just taken a long time to get to this point.
"If I've learned anything, it's that it's a crazy profession. It never goes the way you think it's going to go."
Those close to Beamer never heard him wonder why he hadn't taken a lucrative offer to coach a team that had enough talent to reach the Hall of Fame Bowl last season at a time when Beamer's job security was in question.
Bud Foster, a Tech assistant coach, mused that if Beamer's name was hot in 1990 when vacancies opened elsewhere, imagine the nibbles if Tech had won seven or more games in '91.
But pride and a job unfinished - not ego - kept Beamer in Blacksburg, Cheryl said. That, and a tidbit of information. While he was considering the Boston College job, Beamer said he asked BC people and Tech athletic director Dave Braine whether Tech was a sure bet to be included in the Big East Football Conference.
At the time, the league was two months away from its official birth.
"[Braine] was 100 percent sure he had been told that we would be," Beamer said.
And, Beamer looked at BC's recent history: 40-19-1 and four bowl bids, including the Cotton, between 1982-86, a No. 5 final ranking (1984) and a Heisman Trophy winner (Doug Flutie in '84).
With Tech moving into the Big East and several pro prospects on the '91 team, Beamer said, "I felt like it was a different situation here. We could take it somehwere where they hadn't been before. That's exciting."
Few at Tech were excited about last season - "I didn't know what was going on, but I knew it wasn't right," Beamer says now, chuckling - but Tech assistant head coach Billy Hite saw Beamer take heart in the players' effort, which he said never waned.
The addition of defensive coordinator Phil Elmassian and the maturation of quarterback Maurice DeShazo, a first-year starter last season, are the two biggest reasons for Tech's turnaround, Hite says.
Tech will trot onto the field at Alumni Stadium today for what Foster calls the biggest game in his 11 years as a Beamer aide.
Tom Coughlin, the man hired after Beamer turned down the BC job, has the Eagles (5-2, 3-1) a half-game ahead of Tech for third place in the Big East.
Today's game and the next few weeks could change much about Tech's football program, but so did last season.
The Beamers, Cheryl said, had to help Casey and 16-year-old Shane get over hearing classmates' needling questions such as, "So, where are you going to be living next year?" They changed their phone number to an unlisted one. And Cheryl says she doesn't read newspapers as much as she used to, nor does she listen much to Beamer's radio show. Too thin-skinned, she says.
Only the coach, it seems, remains constant.
"Frank thought we'd be better this year," Cheryl said. "It's been, I think, greater than anyone expected."
Beamer is cautious. With three games left against three teams that have been ranked this season, he knows a 6-5 finish isn't out of the question.
"I don't think I ever said to Cheryl, `Boy, I wish we'd have gone to BC,' " he said. "I knew I'd made the right decision. We've made progress."
by CNB