Posted by Brian “Where’s the Ice” of techsuperfans.com

Following up from MadJay’s post about Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Bryan Stinespring, I’ve decided to write about the other side of the coin, defensive coordinator Bud Foster and the Virginia Tech defense.  Season after season, college football pundits rave about Virginia Tech’s defense.  Fellow TSF writer EhhTee has used the expression, “On defense, we don’t rebuild; we reload!”  Bud Foster has architected this overachievement throughout his career as a defensive coordinator at Virginia Tech.

Foster’s career truly has the story of home grown coaching talent that began and took form within the Hokie football program.  He arrived at Virginia Tech in 1987 to assume the role of linebackers coach.  Through the following seasons he assumed greater responsibilities for more defensive coaching positions and for special teams.  He became the sole defensive coordinator in 1996 and began making a name for himself as one of the best in the business.  Between 1999 and 2008, Foster’s squad finished in the top ten in total defense allowed in all but three of those seasons.  He has consistently coached his defensemen in great play even in seasons where a majority of his starters didn’t return from the previous season.  Now in his fifteenth season as defensive coordinator, Foster leads his defensive squad once again.  On Saturday, they held Nebraska’s offense to only fifteen points and not a single touchdown.  They executed that when the Virginia Tech offense only maintained possession for 5:36 of the entire third quarter.  A defense that has to stay on the field for 9:24 of a quarter has to battle exhaustion.  With the 2009 season just barely underway, we don’t have a lot of statistical data, but let’s take a closer look at this with what we know thus far.  If we rank the top five defenses in the nation who have played two ranked teams in the AP poll, we can note the following.  When playing other ranked teams, they order as USC at number one, then Washington, Oklahoma State, BYU and Virginia Tech.  The time of possession for the offense in that same order averages to 29:08.00, 35:31.50, 31:35.00, 28:35.50, and 26:36.00, respectively.  Virginia Tech’s defense spends the most time on the field amongst the other teams in this group.  Overcoming that comes from good coaching.

Foster doesn’t achieve this success by any accident.  He pays attention to detail.  A September 4, 2009 Richmond Times Dispatch article notes an example of this.  In one game in the 2007 season, he noticed that the opposing offensive tackle dug all his fingers into the turf when taking his stance for a running play and that same tackle only dug some of his fingers into the turf when taking his stance for a pass play.  He directed his linemen to pay attention to this, and it helped them anticipate the opponent’s play-calling.  You have to consider the thoroughness of Foster’s information gathering in making his adjustments.  Foster will tell you that success as a defensive coordinator lies in making good adjustments.

Foster’s highlights include coaching a squad that had lost seven starters to finish seventh in the season in total defense in 2008.  In 2007, he coached Brandon Flowers and Xavier Adibi to All-American status.  In 2005 and 2006, his squad led the entire nation in total defense.  In 2006, he won the Broyles Award.  The Rotary Club of Little Rock created the award to recognize the hardest working, most dedicated coaching assistant.

Foster has a lock on the head coaching job at Virginia Tech when head coach Frank Beamer retires, but based on his track record he may get his chance sooner than that at another BCS program.  Last season, the college football world generated lots of chatter about programs outside of Virginia Tech fielding Foster as a candidate for taking a head coaching job.  If any coaching assistant in college football deserves a promotion to a head coaching job, Foster unquestionably stands out from most others.  Hokie fans all hold their breath in angst hoping that the one of a kind assistant won’t depart.  Fortunately for Virginia Tech football, he has not, at least for now.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.