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(11-10-2022 10:48 AM)58-56 Wrote:  

(11-10-2022 10:12 AM)DuelingDragon Wrote:  It was probably always going to be challenging for whoever followed Frank Beamer. He was so good for so long

He also sucked for years - VPI didn't win more than six games or get a bowl bid until his seventh year when he survived a purge of his entire staff (after finishing the previous season with eight straight losses). He had two 2-win seasons in those years. The Gobblers (as they were then branded) were a standard Homecoming feast, a D1 independent always up for an SEC/ACC ass-kicking with a "thank you sir, may I please have another?"

Only in Year Seven did the VPI Gobblers become the VT Hokies, with a long string of 10-win seasons, poll rankings and dog-murdering superstars.

That could never happen in this environment. Coaches must win and win early to keep their fantastically well-paid jobs. Yet the math says that college football overall must be a zero-sum game; for every winner, there must be a loser.

Fuente had six years at VT and won 43 games; in Beamer's first six years at VPI, he won 24. Fuente's success blows away Frank Beamer's. And it didn't save his job.

So yes, "failure" at a cartel program has to be weighed carefully.