He was able to do it immediately with the basketball program because the institution didn't give a fuck about it prior, but attempting to do it with football would clearly have been political suicide. Whit tried to for a smooth transition instead of a transformation, but decades of Jim Weaver's lack of investment was too much to overcome. The entire athletic department had been built around Beamer's version of the football program and Jim Weaver's penny pinching, the issue was trying to blend the old with the new instead of making a clean break. Would we be in as a Cinderella? Probably. The path to success is different now, but there’s no reason either of us couldn’t expect an invite to the dance. Winning consistently in the Big XII could, in my opinion, make Tech a more desirable destination for that talent. The Big XII has momentum and excitement while the ACC is stagnant. This is the reason I’d like Tech to wind up in the Big XII over the SEC and B10 (not that we know for sure either would want us, unfortunately.) The state of VA is rich with talent that was neglected by the previous staff. Virginia Tech can compete at a high level in the ACC just as WVU can in the Big XII. If we shrink that frame of reference to “what we have, where we are, what we’re working with,” I believe there could be a renaissance of sustained success. As much as it pains me, within the current CFB climate we shouldn’t realistically expect to be at the fundamental level of Bama, tOSU, etc. If we define Golden Age as a sincere belief that we could maybe, possibly compete for a natty straight up, then yes. I don’t disagree in one sense, but let’s look at our frame of reference. It’s doable and thankfully Pry is working his ass off to reestablish that identity. That is the pathway to success once again.

We beat Texas in the 1995 Sugar Bowl with a team full of Beamer specials. Let’s be honest, Vick built that program, but we had already proved we could compete at a high level without that lightning in a bottle. The floodgates opened to a decade of high level talent that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise (DeAngelo Hall, Kevin Jones, Ryan Williams, Tyrod Taylor, etc.) along with the Beamer special of undervalued guys who developed into game changers (Kam Chancellor was a 2* QB coming in, Duane Brown was a 3* TE.) We wound up with possibly the most naturally and uniquely gifted QB in CFB history (bias acknowledged) and that completely changed the program’s stature.

It’s important to understand that Mike Vick wasn’t even the top quarterback out of VA the year he came in. He never made it, but there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have anyway. That’s peanuts for guys who are solidly NFL caliber, but he wasn’t. Still, he was making 6 figures while auditioning for the NFL instead of doing it for free. I imagine he only got a small fraction of that though. Spotrac says he made $119,000 from the Packers. Then he was on the Packers practice squad for about 2 months. He signed with the Eagles and got injured and received some injury settlement. If he had waited a year, he may very well have been in the same position but a year older (24 vs 23) and possibly injured. If you need to prove yourself in order to make a team, you can do it for free in college or $11,000/week on a practice squad running NFL style offenses for NFL coaches. I’m not saying it was the right move, but I don’t think these kinds of decisions are as dumb as they seem, especially if you need the money. If Evans chooses to stay for 2017 (assuming he’s eligible to), does VT do enough to be a little more competitive against Clemson or Miami? Does this allow for a better QB succession that helps avoid or delay the downward spiral regarding coach/player relationships? If Brewer doesn’t get hurt against Ohio State in 2015, even if we don’t win that game, do we at least win more of our other games? Do we do well enough to keep Beamer into 2016 where he can coach in the Battle at Bristol? And with a better offense/defense balance, does Bud Foster have a better chance of succeeding Frank as HC once Frank does retire? If Tyrod had been able to redshirt like the coaches wanted him to, does he become that much more capable in his later years? Do 20 - already 11-win seasons - become even better? And does the different QB succession timeline help us prevent the late Beamer slide? If Marcus Vick doesn’t step on Dumervil’s leg in the Gator Bowl, do his driving infractions that happened around that time result in a suspension instead of a dismissal? How does that change the 2006 season, and then how does that affect the QB succession with Tyrod and Glennon? We’ve had so many “butterfly effect” questions at QB it’s not even funny.

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