Foster-to-WVU – the right move for both parties

Best Seat in the House column by Chris Graham
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Bad news, Tech fans. If West Virginia has any sense in its institutional head, it will hire your defensive coordinator away.
Bud Foster is long since ready for the move from Defensive Genius Without Peer to major-college head coach. Virginia football fans will remember his name as having come up for their favorite team’s head job back when it was last open in 2000-2001 before UVa. decided on Al Groh.
That’s a long time for a guy who should already be a head coach somewhere – but then maybe Foster was just waiting for the right opportunity to come along.

The right opportunity is WVU – which has become a perennial BCS contender since the hiring of a former career assistant in Rich Rodriguez in 2000.

West Virginia would be wise to follow the course that it set for itself in 2000 with the blessing of Rodriguez, who was at that point Clemson coach Tommy Bowden’s top assistant and a regular on sportswriters’ Next Assistant To Become A Head Coach lists.

The alternative right now appears to be to try to recycle Bowden’s brother Terry, who had some success early at Auburn before leaving under a cloud in 1998 – but there’s a reason that Bowden has been out of coaching for 10 years, and I don’t know that the Mountaineers faithful want to find that out given where the program is right now.

Terry Bowden hasn’t had to recruit a single player in 10 years, hasn’t had to game-plan for 10 years, hasn’t had to run a practice in 10 years, hasn’t had to do anything other than drive to the game and then drive home for 10 years.

Bud Foster has had to do all of that – and by all indications, he’s done it quite well.

He’s the guy to keep West Virginia where Rodriguez has left it – which is knocking on the door of a national championship.

So that’s bad news for Virginia Tech football – sorta, kinda.

It could also be good news. Successful coaches usually have family trees that extend out across their particular sport’s landscape. Foster-to-WVU could be the beginning of a successful new line in the Beamer Tree that could produce fruit in the form of new young coaching disciples for both to pull from down the road.

Chris Graham is the executive editor of The SportsDominion.