Virginia Tech Must Do Everything It Can To Land Shane Beamer As Its Next Head Coach

The South Carolina head coach needs to be on the top of Virginia Tech's list.

Sep 6, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer directs his team against the South Carolina State Bulldogs in the second half at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

The Virginia Tech Hokies have fired Brent Pry, their head coach for the last 3.5 seasons. During that time, Pry went 16-24 and won just 10 of the 23 ACC games he coached. After an abysmal 0-3 start, which included an embarrassing loss to Old Dominion on Saturday, the Hokies finally severed ties with Pry.

There will be a lot of names floated around in relation to who Viriginia Tech's next head coach could be, but there's one name the Hokies should have at the top of their list: Shane Beamer.

Top Target?

Sep 6, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer directs his team against the South Carolina State Bulldogs in the second half at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

Beamer is currently the head coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks, who beat the Hokies in Week 1 of the CFB season. More importantly, Beamer is the son of Frank Beamer, the legendary Virginia Tech coach, who is the winningest coach in program history and helped build Tech into one of the top programs in the country. Shane also coached at Virginia Tech as the running backs coach under his father.

It's going to take a lot of resources and convincing to get Shane Beamer to leave South Carolina and come to Virginia Tech, but the Hokies must make him say no. He is currently under contract with the Gamecocks until 2030 and is set to make around $8.5 million per season. The Hokies need to throw a ton of cash at him and make him a deal that is incredibly hard to refuse. He has DEEP ties to the Virginia Tech program, so while it may seem far fetched, it's not completely out of the realm of possibility.

Sep 13, 2025; Columbia, South Carolina, USA; South Carolina Gamecocks head coach Shane Beamer directs his team against the Vanderbilt Commodores in the second quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Blake-Imagn Images | Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

Beamer has done an incredible job with the South Carolina program. He took over in 2020 and has since turned a 2-8 team in 2020 into a nine-win team in 2024. The Gamecocks started the season ranked in the AP Poll, but with their loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday, they're now unranked.

While South Carolina is in the SEC and the resources are better than Virginia Tech's, it is not one of the elite jobs in the conference, and it has historically been hard to win big in Columbia. Beamer is recruiting at a good level, but not at the level of Georgia, LSU, Texas, Alabama, or Oklahoma. It is a very tough job, and if Virginia Tech can show they will put in the resources to build a better program, the gap might not be as big as you think.

There are quite a few different directions the Hokies could go with their coaching search. There are some in-house options such as Phillip Montgomery, who is serving as interim head coach, and J.C. Price, who served as interim head coach in 2021. They could also look outside the building at guys like Alex Golesh (USF) or Billy Napier (Florida, if he's fired), but they cannot hire somebody without at least trying to get Beamer to come back to Blacksburg.

Shane Beamer needs to be on the top of Virginia Tech's list. Make him an offer that's incredibly hard to turn down, and if he declines, only then do you start seriously looking elsewhere.