Will Virginia Tech offer Bud Foster a Texas-like deal?

BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech Athletic Director Jim Weaver spent part of yesterday researching Texas' decision to designate its defensive coordinator as its future head coach. Weaver wants to find out if, and how, a similar arrangement could work at Tech, presumably with defensive coordinator Bud Foster.

Weaver left a telephone message for Texas Athletic Director DeLoss Dodds, hoping Dodds could provide some insight into the announcement Monday that Will Muschamp will eventually replace Mack Brown, 57, as the Longhorns' head coach. Weaver said his research also would include a conversation with Tech head coach Frank Beamer, 62.

Weaver saw the news about Muschamp on television last night before he left his house to appear on Beamer's weekly radio show, during which Weaver first said he planned to look into Texas' arrangement.

"I need to learn about what I saw on the ticker tape last night," Weaver said yesterday. "Everything is very preliminary."

Foster, 49, has been Tech's defensive coordinator since 1995. He interviewed Friday for Clemson's head-coaching job with Tigers Athletic Director Terry Don Phillips, who was an assistant football coach at Tech from 1971-78 and earned his master's and doctorate degrees at the school during that time. Many observers figured Muschamp would be a candidate for the Clemson job. Phillips also has reportedly interviewed Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables and former Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin.

Beamer, who is in his 22nd season as Tech's head coach, indicated on his radio show that he might not be in favor of a head-coach-in-waiting arrangement at Tech. "To me, it makes it a little bit of an awkward situation," he said, but added, "That's somebody else's decision here at Virginia Tech. That's not mine."

Weaver said Beamer's opinion is "certainly going to have a tremendous amount of impact" in Weaver figuring out whether a similar arrangement would work at Tech.

Texas is just the latest school to designate a current assistant as its future head coach. Florida State and Purdue also have done it, though the coaches at those schools, 79-year-old Bobby Bowden and 65-year-old Joe Tiller, are considerably older than Brown, who is in his 11th season at Texas. That's why news of the situation surprised Weaver.

"This is something that is extremely unique as far as I'm concerned," he said.

Clemson interviewing Foster isn't the first time another school has been interested in him. After last season, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier asked him to become the Gamecocks' defensive coordinator. Foster declined. Weaver then gave Foster a $50,000 raise -- boosting his base salary to $350,000 -- and said he hoped the pay increase would keep Foster in Blacksburg.

But Weaver said yesterday that he doubted any raise would prevent Foster from taking the Clemson job. "I think if Bud Foster would get offered the Clemson job," Weaver said, "Bud Foster would take the Clemson job."

NOTE: Weaver said he is "continuing to work on" finalizing next season's football opener, against a Southeastern Conference team in Atlanta's Georgia Dome. When Tech announced the game during the summer, it was in discussion with Alabama. Though the opponent has yet to be determined, Weaver said Alabama remains in the mix. To accommodate the game, Tech pushed its scheduled 2009 opener against Cincinnati to 2012.