Virginia Tech announced Sunday that Memphis coach Justin Fuente will be the new football coach for the Hokies.
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The Memphis Tigers head coach takes over for Frank Beamer who will retire at the end of the season after 29 years running the program.
The best situation would be to have Foster stay as the DC going forward because Fuente isn’t the greatest defensive mind, Memphis has struggled defensively, Virginia Tech could be scary good again with that combo.
Virginia Tech has hired Memphis’ Justin Fuente as its next football coach.
Fuente said when other programs have reached out to his representatives in the past inquiring about his interest, he has always “nipped it in the bud” and went back to work on his team at Memphis.
The talks between Babcock and Fuente had to be put on hold late last week, allowing Fuente to prepare his Tigers team for a game against SMU.
He inherits one of the better situations in the ACC, though Virginia Tech has not played for a conference title since 2012. “When I say that, there are a lot of offensive coaches out there that want to lead the country in total offense no matter what, and that’s not what I believe in”.
“In our search, we will look for a coach who’s demonstrated the ability to implement his system and achieved a consistent level of success”, Littlepage said in the news release.
“We are thrilled to welcome Justin, Jenny and their three daughters into our Virginia Tech family”, Virginia Tech athletics director Whit Babcock said. He quickly engineered a turnaround, guiding them to their first 10-win season since 1938 a year ago, and a No. 25 ranking in the final AP Top 25, a program first. He recorded only one winning season, an 8-5 mark in 2011 that resulted in his being named ACC coach of the year. He was 24-5 with the Spiders, his first head-coaching job.
Since Foster became Beamer’s defensive coordinator in 1996, the Hokies lead the nation in interceptions and sacks.
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“If you can recruit in Texas”, Babcock said, “you can recruit anywhere”. Fuente, 39, began his coaching career at Illinois State where he was the quarterbacks coach from 2001-03 and assumed offensive coordinator duties from 2004-06.
