This season will mark Frank Beamer’s 25th as the head coach at his alma mater. Only Joe Paterno (entering his 46th year at Penn State) has been with his current school longer than Beamer.

He’s taken Tech from a team that used to expect to win two or three games a year to a team that’s won at least 10 games in seven straight seasons. He deserves all the credit in the world for bringing this program to the national stage.

Tuesday night after practice, one of our reporters was able to speak with starting rover Eddie Whitley about his head coach.

ON BEING HERE FOR BEAMER’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY: “(He’s been coaching here) longer than I was alive. It is kinda crazy. It’s just an honor that I’m here for his 25th anniversary. The fact that he was number 25 when he was here seems kinda crazy also.”

ON BEAMER’S ABILITY TO TAKE ONE AND TWO-STAR RECRUITS AND TURN THEM INTO KEY CONTRIBUTORS: “The hard work and attitude that we have around here. He doesn’t slight nobody, no matter if you’re an All-American or a one-star (recruit), he treats everybody the same. He treats everybody equal. That just makes everybody want to work hard. If someone comes in here, prima donna, it’s gonna hit ‘em in the head real quick that Beamer doesn’t care about that stuff… We just push each other even harder and harder every day because we’re so close-knit, and we know that everybody has a clean slate (when we get) here.”

Look for a full story on this in Friday’s football season preview newspaper, as well an offensive and defensive preview, an ACC preview, and much more.

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