Longevity was a staple of Frank Beamer's tenure at Virginia Tech.
Beamer spent 29 seasons as the Hokies' head coach and took the program to 23 consecutive bowl games from 1993-2015 before retiring.
At the Little Rock Touchdown Club on Monday at the Embassy Suites, Beamer spoke about his coaching career and how he was able to stay at one place for almost three decades.
Beamer's advice for younger coaches to stay at one place would be to win. But he recalled his sixth year, 1992, at Virginia Tech, and the Hokies went 2-8-1, after having gone through NCAA scholarship reductions because of violations under previous coach Bill Dooley.
"I think in the end, people weren't ready to fire me," Beamer said. "They understand we had some scholarship reductions. They knew I was concerned with the kids graduating. We weren't screaming and hollering at them. That all goes into staying somewhere for that long."
Beamer, 69, was 280-143-4 in 35 years as a college head coach, including a 238-121-2 record at Virginia Tech. When he retired last year, Beamer was the winningest active coach in college football.
"I really tried to treat people right with respect," said Beamer, who noted he went through four presidents and three athletic directors at Virginia Tech.
Integrity, communication and organization were the pillars of Beamer's program.
Beamer used golf, a sport that does not have officials, as an example of how to gauge integrity.
"You find out a lot about a person in a four-hour round of golf," Beamer said. "How passionate they are and how respectful they are.
"If you cheat in golf, you'll cheat in life. That's just a fact."
Communication, Beamer said, should mean do what you say and say what you mean.
"I always told our coaches, 'Make sure you're exact in what you're saying to the kids,'" Beamer said. "Communication has got to be there."
Organization was also very important to Beamer. He said that before every football season, he would meet with his players and coaches, along with the school's academic, equipment, training and sports information staffs.
"I wanted to know each person's responsibility," Beamer said.
Beamer said it wasn't important to how much you worked, but what you did during that time.
"A lot of people in my business would say, 'All right, you're here at 8 o'clock and you leave at 11 o'clock,' " Beamer said. "I was never that way. I always kept our meetings at the same time. ... I wanted to be consistent.
"When you're through, go home," Beamer said. "Just to hang around was not a very productive way to go."
Beamer has spent his first year of retirement watching the Hokies with new coach Justin Fuente and Georgia, where his son Shane coaches tight ends and special teams.
"I don't miss the stress a bit," Beamer said. "You miss the players and the coaches. You miss parts of it. But I think in terms in how fortunate I was to stay in one place for 29 years rather than what I'm missing or what am I not doing now."
Sports on 10/11/2016