Shane Beamer responds to potential Virginia Tech interest

South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer attempted to shut down speculation about interest in the opening at Virginia Tech on Tuesday. The first-year SEC head coach told the media that he’s not interested in leaving Columbia.

“This is where I want to be,” Beamer said. “When I said this was my dream job, I wasn’t saying that to sound cool in a press conference. This is where my wife and I and our family want to be. We didn’t put that sign up at Williams-Brice saying Welcome Home because it’s trendy. This is home.”

Virginia Tech split with head coach Justin Fuente just two games shy of the end of his sixth season. The Hokies went 43-31 in his time in Blacksburg, 5-5 this season.

Shane Beamer is considered a top candidate for the Hokies thanks to his father, former VT head coach Frank Beamer. The connection runs deep. The younger Beamer also played wideout for the Hokies and coached running backs under the elder for five seasons.

The Gamecocks are 5-5 this year under Beamer, which includes an upset win over Florida.

Hokies part ways with Justin Fuente

Virginia Tech will pay Justin Fuente a sum of $8.75 million after firing the head coach after six seasons. Athletics director Whit Babcock announced the total on Tuesday morning after the dismissal.

The buyout number is lower than the number initially reported at $10 million. If the program waited to fire Fuente until after Dec. 15, the buyout figure would have been further reduced.

J.C. Price, defensive line coach, will serve as the interim coach for the rest of the year. 

Making $4.25 million a year in salary, Fuente was the ACC’s third highest-paid head coach behind Dabo Swinney and Pat Narduzzi.

Virginia Tech suffered their third three-game losing streak at Lane Stadium in the past four years this season, falling to Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and Syracuse in consecutive weeks. The man that Fuente replaced, Virginia Tech legend Frank Beamer, only had two such streaks in 29 seasons.

The head coach narrowly avoided his firing last season in large part thanks to a 33-15 beatdown he dished out to his hated in-state rival, Virginia, in November of 2020.

“We sincerely appreciate the contributions that Coach Fuente made to our football program and the positive impact he made on our student-athletes during his time at Virginia Tech,” athletic director Whit Babcock said in a statement Tuesday morning. “While it is never easy to make a change, I believe in order for our football program to attain the type of sustained success that is expected at Virginia Tech, the time was right for new leadership of our football program.”