We can all stop speculating about Bud Foster's possible departure from Virginia Tech. Today, the Hokies made Foster a very rich defensive coordinator. At least they will make him a very rich defensive coordinator provided he stays with the Hokies for five years.
Should Foster stick around for the next five years, he'll receive an annuity from Virginia Tech the amount of which will be announced at a later date. Supposedly it's a pretty good sum of cash. It's enough to get Foster to say that another school would have to come up with "a lot of money" to get him to leave the Hokies even if it's for a head coaching job.
CGB from College Game Balls and I are in agreement that this might as well be a "Head Coach in Waiting" deal. Even though it's not worked into the contract, I think the goal of it is to keep Foster in Blacksburg long enough to make him Frank Beamer's replacement.
Five years is a long time in coaching years and Foster has to realize that his window to parlay his success as a coordinator into a head coaching gig is closing. I think the only way he'd agree to stay at Tech this long was if it was understood that he's going to be the one to take over for Beamer.
Foster will be 55 when his annuity would kick in and college football coaching is a young man's game. His age will make him less desirable to top programs even if his defenses continue to have the same success they've enjoyed the last few years.
In five years Frank Beamer will be 68. Whether or not he'll be ready to retire and hand over the keys to the program he built from nothing remains to be seen, but if he is ready to do that in five years, he'll likely hand those keys to Foster.
Even if the rumors that there's a rift between Beamer and Foster are true (and there's no way in hell that they are), it looks like Frank and Bud are staying together for the kids.