"When we've golfed, though, he gets those competitive juices going, and it's a days work to beat him." "I don’t think we’ve ever had our teams go up against each other, but we’ve gone against each other on the golf course," said Beamer. I’m letting my assistants do the coaching and they’re doing a good job."īeamer will get to coach against Steve Spurrier, who is coaching Team Mauka, on Saturday night and it will be the first time the two have ever faced off on the football field. But I’m really impressed with the talent levels of the kids here. "I went to the championship game in New Orleans so I got in here late so I'm still getting to know the players. So it was an early departure from New Orleans on Tuesday to get to Honolulu to coach. It's been a busy week for Beamer, who was in New Orleans on Monday night for the College Football National Championship Game as a member of the College Football Playoff Committee. "I had a couple people talk to me that were involved with the game and encouraged me to come," said Beamer. The other will be rekindling memories of a most special season.It has been over four years since Frank Beamer retired as the head coach at Virginia Tech but this week has given the Hall of Fame coach a chance to return to the sidelines.īeamer is coaching Team Makai in the fourth annual Polynesian Bowl in Hawaii.Īnd he's thrilled to be back coaching again, if even for just a week. One is closing a career that almost certainly will be honored by enshrinement in the College Football Hall of Fame – coincidentally, less than two miles from Bobby Dodd Stadium. If all goes as planned, they’ll meet on the same field under far different circumstances, 25 years later. “I told our team about that, and they did not disappoint us.”įor the second week in a row, the Yellow Jackets escaped with a last-second field goal, this time for a 6-3 win at Grant Field. “I knew this, that Frankie’s teams were always going to be very well-disciplined and they were going to be physical and they were going to be a physical football team,” Ross said. Beamer’s team was in his fourth season at Virginia Tech, then a football independent, trying to get his team off the ground. A week earlier, Georgia Tech had stunned Virginia on a last-second field goal, a critical turn on its way to No. They met as opponents for the only time in 1990. But the best thing about him was how much he cared about players and coaches and that part of it.” “He can talk offense, defense, special teams. “I think he was probably a coach that knew more football than anybody I’ve ever been around,” Beamer said at his news conference Monday. There was far more to the imprint that Beamer left on Ross than his football acumen. Beamer stayed behind, later jumping to Murray State, where he was an assistant and later head coach. Ross coached at the Citadel 1973-77, leaving for an assistant coaching job with the Kansas City Chiefs. But “I don’t want to bother him on game day.” “I’m going to try to say hi to him, for sure,” Ross said of Beamer. Friedgen, the Jackets’ offensive coordinator on that cherished team, will likewise be in attendance. 1.īy a most serendipitous turn, when Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech meet Thursday night at Bobby Dodd Stadium, Ross will be there to greet his dear friend as Georgia Tech will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of the 1990 championship. After 29 seasons and seven conference championships at Virginia Tech, Beamer will retire from his alma mater at the end of the season, having made the announcement Nov. With that, Ross gave wings to one of the most successful coaching careers in college football history. When Ross was offered the head coaching job at the Citadel after his one season at Maryland, he took along Beamer (as well as another grad assistant named Ralph Friedgen).
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