When Justin Fuente was announced as Virginia Tech’s new head coach, many experts and analysts considered the move to be a great hire. Even as you read this, there are articles still coming out applauding how well athletic director Whit Babcock and Virginia Tech performed their coaching search, and rightfully so. Babcock executed one of the smoothest and most successful coaching transitions this year. He accomplished a feat that quite frankly may go down as one of the most impactful and noteworthy hires the Virginia Tech Athletics Department has made since December 22, 1986 – when Frank Beamer was hired.

Even with the positive grades coming from all over the media, there were still several Hokie fans that moaned and groaned about the hire. However, those complaints seem to come from the casual fan that view Justin Fuente as an unfamiliar name. Let’s face it; he’s not a household name in college football like a Mark Richt, Rich Rodriguez, Chip Kelly, or even Les Miles. If you look closer at those familiar names, you’ll realize that’s a list of coaches that were (1) fired from their previous employer after failing, (2) demands a ridiculous pay raise that would break the bank, or (3) perhaps a coach that may be reaching the end of his career. Instead, Babcock went a different route. He hired a young up-and-coming successful head coach who was highly sought after by many programs. He even admitted he turned down double-digit number of job offers once he found out Virginia Tech was interested. Fuente wanted to be a Hokie, and Virginia Tech fans cannot ask for a better scenario.

With that being said, let’s admit it…Hokie fans still don’t truly know Fuente yet, and what Virginia Tech football will evolve into under his watch. In order to understand where he plans to take the program, it’s just as important to learn where he came from.

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