![]() He’s long been recognized as Southwest Virginia’s most prominent favorite son. It seems odd to some observers that this unassuming man who runs onto the field each game with a gimpy gait can possibly serve as the high priest of this intense cult of Hokie Nation. In due time, Beamer and his coaching staff will steady this young team and survive another crisis as they have done so many times in his 24 years in Blacksburg. ![]() “It gave me goose bumps,” Beamer would admit later. Untold numbers of students say they chose Tech as their school in large part because they longed to be a part of this pagan worship. It’s the signature manic outburst in Tech’s football ritual, as the whole place becomes some giant undulating organism. The stadium’s massive PA begins to pound out the team’s trademark anthem, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” and on cue the crowd of 66,000-plus, dressed mostly in orange, rises to the insistency of their surging noise and begins jumping up and down furiously. He is eager to see if they still love him. So now he stands here, eyeing the expanse of Hokie faithful who have spent the past dozen days venting their anger on talk radio across the state. Projected to perhaps challenge for the national championship, Beamer’s club instead began the season with two losses. It’s the phrase his mother taught him long ago. “It is what it is,” he told the media afterward. It is a phrase Beamer has used often in his 30 years as a head coach. Five days later they suffered the greatest humiliation of Beamer’s impressive career by falling here, on their home field, to lowly James Madison. They appeared to have beaten third-ranked Boise State in a season-opening Monday night game, only to collapse and lose at the end. But stumble they have in spectacular fashion. The players are mostly young and uninitiated yet very eager to please Beamer. This 2010 group waits nervously behind him in the tunnel. On this day, his face is drawn and tired and fixed with the grave concern that always clouds over him when one of his teams stumbles. He’s about to lead his team onto the field, but as usual he pauses as he allows the fervor to gather, all the while surveying the world he has built from what was once the quaint mediocrity of Virginia Tech Football. ![]() The military helicopter peels sideways through the broad blue sky as the crowd roars, and soon enough Frank Beamer appears at the mouth of the tunnel here at Lane Stadium. ![]()
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