The Beamer in Beamer Ball left when Frank Beamer retired in 2015, but the legacy lives on in the program under Bud Foster, career hard-ass defensive coach who has been with the program since 1987 (and its defensive coordinator since 1995).
Point: Virginia Tech’s defense was incredibly thin. Counterpoint: Bud Foster.
One of the best defensive coordinators in history made Florida State look awful in Willie Taggart’s debut.
Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports
When Justin Fuente was hired to replace Beamer, he kept the long-term assistant — not always a given during regime change — and it’s the shrewdest move he could have made.
As Beamer looked on from a box in Tallahassee, Virginia Tech’s defense smacked and stymied Florida State in the Labor Day opener. But it wasn’t supposed to go down like this.
The Hokies came into this game missing an entire starting lineup’s worth of players.
Throughout the offseason, a common theme with Virginia Tech was losing players.
In April, six players left for the NFL Draft, and Foster’s co-defensive coordinator resigned. The players going to the league was expected, no problem.
In June, one defensive back had to declare for the supplemental NFL Draft, and another tore his Achilles. Ok, not ideal, but injuries happen too.
Then things continued to get worse. Nickel Mook Reynolds, an integral part to Virginia Tech’s defensive scheme, got kicked off the team. And a defensive tackle transferred.
That left Virginia Tech with around 32 percent of its defensive production returning, second-worst in the country, and a whole host of depth issues heading into the season.
Foster spoke after the game about how Virginia Tech traveled to Tallahassee with a bunch of “no names” yet still went home with the 24-3 win.
Just to put some names on a few of those “no names,” DB Reggie Floyd led with nine tackles and had two for loss, lineman Trevon Hill led with three TFL, and freshman DB Caleb Farley had two interceptions.
And this wasn’t just any win. It was a Foster special.
Just take a look at just how comprehensively the Hokies shut the Noles down:
The defense made a hyped offense look bad all over the field, but especially in the red zone, where Virginia Tech pulled off a goal line stand on one drive and forced a turnover — one of five on the night — on another FSU red zone trip. FSU scored three points from four red zone trips in the game.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this offensive performance was the fact that Taggart’s offense looked completely unprepared for its debut. The Gulf Coast Offense, which saved Taggart’s career at USF and earned him jobs at Oregon and Florida State, was overwhelmed by Bud Foster’s defense. The Hokies feasted on FSU’s inexperienced offensive line and flew to the boundary when the ’Noles tried to get the ball to the outside.
Week 1 is a crapshoot in general with a sport that doesn’t have a preseason and deals with 18-22 year olds. Defense is the side of the ball that can offer the least amount of variance heading into a new season, particularly when you have a lot of returning production. Defense takes less precision and timing than offense, so you can just turn dudes loose if all else fails and hope for the best.
Foster’s defensive is particularly aggressive as well, known for creative blitzes. From the 2018 preview:
Tech was efficient and aggressive up front, ranking eighth in overall success rate and lighting all sorts of fires with its front six. The Hokies were first in power success rate, third in stuff rate (run stops at or behind the line), and 25th in Adj. Sack Rate.
But that’s what makes what Virginia Tech did under Foster in Week 1 even more impressive. His swarming unit of no names still met the challenge, just like it has for two decades.
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