It has been an interesting week, to say the least, and we learned something
we didn’t know: Frank Beamer can have his cake and eat it, too. With some clever
maneuvering in coaching hires and job creation, Frank has found his perfect
solution. He has remained loyal to his longtime coaching friends and has made
important changes to his staff at the same time.

Silly us. Whenever we — and by “we,” I mean me, Chris Coleman, and
everyone who ever wants to talk Hokie football with me — discussed coaching
staff changes, we were under the impression that in order for new coaches to be
hired, old ones had to be fired, dismissed, encouraged to move on … in other
words, exit, stage left.

But
by creating previously non-existent, non-coaching, administrative positions in
the football office for Billy Hite and Jim Cavanaugh, Frank Beamer has cleverly
avoided having to bring in new coaches and get rid of his long-time
friends and associates at the same time. He gets an infusion of new blood that
he feels is necessary, but he gets to display his famous loyalty at the same
time. It’s the best of both of Frank’s worlds.

In perfect Frank Beamer style, however, Frank is not blazing a new trail.
He’s merely borrowing from what he has seen elsewhere. In researching Shane
Beamer’s background for the article on Shane’s hiring, Chris Coleman discovered
that the South Carolina football program has an entire administrative staff
dedicated to football recruiting. Like all programs, they have an assistant
coach with the title of “recruiting coordinator” — that was Shane
himself — but that coach is assisted by several non-coaching staff members.

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