As Tennessee prepares to play Virginia Tech in the Chick-fil-A Bowl on New Year’s Eve, the Vols will face a Hokies’ team whose success can be traced to Murray State University.
In 1980, I was a freshman football player at Murray State, where one of my coaches was Frank Beamer. Bud Foster, who currently serves as Beamer’s defensive coordinator, was an outside linebacker on that Racers’ team.
Before becoming the head coach at Virginia Tech, Beamer was initially hired as an assistant at Murray State and later became the Racers head coach.
In 1979, former Murray State coach Mike Gottfried hired Beamer as the Racers defensive coordinator. Beamer had worked for seven years as Bobby Ross’ assistant at The Citadel.
Under his guidance, Beamer developed one of the best defensive groups in the Ohio Valley Conference, helping the Racers to reach the Division 1-AA playoffs in 1979.
In his two years as Murray State’s defensive coordinator, the Racers compiled a 21-3 record. Upon completion of the 1980 season, Gottfried resigned to take the head coach’s job at the University of Cincinnati and Beamer was hired to replace him.
Beamer spent six seasons as the head coach at Murray State, compiling a record of 42-23-2 and led the Racers to an OVC championship in 1986.
In December 1986, Beamer was hired as Virginia Tech’s head coach, his Alma mater. He was a starting cornerback for three years on the Hokies football team, playing in the 1966 and 1968 Liberty Bowls.
Since taking over the Virginia Tech football program, Beamer has compiled a record of 186-92-2, winning three Big East Conference championships, three Atlantic Coast Conference championships and guiding the Hokies to 17 straight bowl game appearances.
In 2004, Beamer was inducted into the Murray State Hall of Fame, the only football coach in the past 30 years to be given that honor.
Beamer’s Virginia Tech teams have been noted for their strong defensive units and special teams. The roots of that strength can again be found at Murray State.
Bud Foster
Foster has worked as a defensive assistant since Beamer took over in 1986. Upon graduating in 1981, Foster was hired as a graduate assistant on Beamer’s coaching staff at Murray State.
After two years as a graduate assistant, Foster was elevated to a full-time staff position. He coached outside linebackers for three seasons before taking over the inside and outside linebackers in 1986. He also served as the Racers’ recruiting coordinator and worked with special teams.
Foster followed Beamer to Virginia Tech in 1987 and became the inside linebackers coach. He served as an assistant defensive coach for the next eight seasons.
In 1995, Foster was named co-defensive coordinator and was promoted to defensive coordinator in 1996, a position he has held for the past 14 seasons.
After helping lead the Hokies to the 1999 BCS national championship game, Foster was recognized as the 2000 American Football Coaches Association Defensive Coordinator of the Year.
Foster’s 2005 and 2006 Virginia Tech defenses led the nation in total defense. Following the 2006 season, he received the Frank Broyles Award, which is given to the top assistant coach in college football.
Murray State, a school located in southwest Kentucky near the Tennessee border, has an enrollment of roughly 10,000 students. Its football stadium seats a little over 16,000, a far cry from the 75,000 fans that will pack the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve to watch the Volunteers and Hokies.
But the roots of the Hokies success can be traced back to a tiny Division 1-AA school in Murray, Kentucky, where more than one famous college football coach has walked the sidelines.
After Gottfried left in 1980, he went on to have a very successful coaching career at Cincinnati, Kansas and finally Pittsburgh. He later became a color analyst working college football telecasts for ESPN.
Also on Gottfried’s coaching staff in 1980 was former Vols assistant Ron Zook, who served as the secondary and special teams coach for the Racers. Zook went on to become the head coach at Florida and currently holds the head coaching job at Illinois.
Current Maryland head coach Ralph Friedgen was the offensive line coach at Murray State under Beamer. Current Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt served as Murray State’s head coach from 1993 to 1996.
Murray State will never be mentioned in the same breath with the elite programs in college football, but it just happens to be one of the cornerstones for some of the game’s coaching elite.
