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QUESTION: What has Bud Foster meant to Virginia Tech football?
It is hard to provide an answer which is worthy of the man, his achievements, and his stature… but I will try to offer one.
Bud Foster’s meaning to Virginia Tech football has to be explained in multiple ways and viewed through multiple lenses. Just one view of the man isn’t enough.
There is a purely football-based component to all of this: Foster will be remembered in football terms as one of the great defensive coordinators of his or any other era. He belongs in the College Football Hall of Fame. If the HOF can’t make a home for Bud Foster, it isn’t much of a Hall of Fame.
Foster is — in football terms — to Virginia Tech what Charlie McBride was for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Yes, Tom Osborne was a brilliant coach, but he had Charlie McBride coaching his defense all those years. Frank Beamer wouldn’t have become all that he became without Bud Foster. Don’t ever forget that. It is much the same with Osborne and McBride.
Even Bear Bryant needed an elite coordinator. Many younger football fans probably wouldn’t react when hearing the name “Ken Donahue.” Who? Exactly… but he was the Bear’s defensive coordinator at Alabama, a rock of dependability on his coaching staff. The Bear is no less of an icon because he needed Donahue’s expertise. No head coach is less of an icon because of his coordinators. We can see and appreciate today that great head coaches are often magnified by the assistants they hire. Look at Dabo Swinney with Brent Venables at Clemson. Venables turned that program into something special.
This is a core part of Bud Foster’s legacy with Frank Beamer at Virginia Tech. Yet, it is only one slice of a bigger Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
Bud Foster is also an icon because of his loyalty — not just to Beamer, but to Virginia Tech. Foster stayed with the program to help Justin Fuente find his footing. If Virginia Tech beats Virginia on Friday, Foster will have won two ACC Coastal titles for Fuente in four seasons. Even if he doesn’t win, the turnaround engineered with this 2019 defense gives Foster a worthy high note to leave on. The loyalty shown to Virginia Tech means something no win-loss records can fully measure.
One can’t finish a Bud Foster appraisal without noting the respect he commands from others. Fuente arrived at Virginia Tech and wanted him to stay. How many coordinators create that kind of response from an incoming head coach, who could easily have wanted to do things his own way? Few men in an unforgiving, cutthroat profession have earned respect and trust the way Bud Foster has.
The football coach is a Hall of Famer. The person is better than the coach. That tells the heart of the story when Bud Foster is the topic of discussion. No, I don’t think I captured the entirety of the man, but that is a succinct way of expressing the man’s greatness at Virginia Tech.
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