A Football Life: How the Game Brought Bryan Stinespring Home
“It hit me like a ton of bricks, and the first time I stepped on a practice field with a pair of bikey shorts and a whistle around my neck, it was no turning back.”
Bryan Stinespring has been coaching in Southwest and Central Virginia for the better part of the last 40 years. He spent the majority of that time as an Assistant Coach under Frank Beamer, serving a variety of roles, from Graduate Assistant to Offensive Coordinator. After leaving Blacksburg in 2015, Stinespring traveled just two hours up I-81 to his alma mater, James Madison University, where he spent two years coaching and won a National Championship. Then, after some brief stints at Maryland, ODU, and Delaware, Stinespring found his way back to the mountains of Southwest Virginia to take on a whole new challenge, building the football program at Roanoke College. What kept Stinespring coming back to this little corner of the Commonwealth all these years, when, with his experience, he could probably find an analyst job on an SEC or Big Ten staff? For the coach better known as “Stiney”, the answer is simple: “I missed Southwest Virginia, that’s who I am…this is home.” Coach Stinespring said he’s at his happiest where he is right now, and the story to get there is as amazing and unique as the man himself.
Stinespring was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia, a small town with a population of less than 4,000 that sits about an hour and 20 minutes north of Blacksburg. When Stinespring arrived on campus at JMU, he became the first member of his family to go to college. He says that the opportunity to continue playing football was a big motivation in his college decision, but he had no plans to stick around the game after he left. Stiney says he was considering going to law school or potentially becoming an FBI Agent, but then he got a phone call that would completely change the trajectory of his life. His former High School football coach called him and offered the Head Coaching job at Lexington High School. Immediately, Stiney knew he had to take the opportunity and signed the contract 30 minutes after that call. Stinespring would teach government and history classes, and run the football and wrestling programs. He says, “It hit me like a ton of bricks, and the first time I stepped on a practice field with a pair of bikey shorts and a whistle around my neck, it was no turning back. I knew then…this is what I want to do, and I would do everything I can to be the best version of myself at it that I could be.”
“You knew this was the right guy, everything about him…it was how he handled people, the passion he had to get Virginia Tech into a place that all Hokies would be proud of.”
So how did Stinespring then make the jump from High School football coach to joining a Division One staff at Virginia Tech? He says that journey started during his second season at Lexington High School when Virginia Tech Graduate Assistant Dennis Vaught came to visit him. That started the relationship between Stinespring and Blacksburg. He says that he and his staff would often visit Virginia Tech for coaching clinics and to meet with the staff. That’s where Stinespring began to develop relationships with coaches like Billy Hite, who would work as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech for 36 years. A few years later, while Stiney was working as the Head Coach at Patrick Henry High School, he would receive another life-changing phone call, this time from Coach Hite. Stinespring was offered a Graduate Assistant position, and once again Stinespring jumped at the opportunity. This job did not come without risk, however, as Stinespring would take a massive pay cut from $33,000 to just $1,500 per semester. While Stinespring acknowledges it was a gamble, he says it was an opportunity to further his education by getting his master’s degree, but also to take his shot coaching college football.
Stinespring arrived in Blacksburg in 1990, which was legendary coach Frank Beamer’s fourth season at Virginia Tech. As hard as it may be to believe now, as Beamer’s name is plastered all over VT’s campus and his legacy looms even larger in Blacksburg, those early years were a struggle for the Hokies. From 1987-1992, Beamer won just 24 games and racked up 40 losses. In 1992, the team went 2-8-1, which for a 6th-year coach in modern college football usually means a trip to the unemployment line. As easy as it may be now to look back with hindsight, Stinespring said he always had the confidence the program would turn it around, and it was all thanks to Coach Beamer and the staff he’d put in place. He says, “You knew this was the right guy, everything about him…it was how he handled people, the passion he had to get Virginia Tech into a place that all Hokies would be proud of.” He says that between Beamer, Defensive Coordinator Bud Foster, Billy Hite, and legendary strength coach Mike Gentry, the pieces were there; it was just a matter of bringing everything together and getting over the hump. Stinespring says after that two-win season in 1992, Beamer made some difficult decisions to change how the Hokies did things. Beamer changed the way the Hokies practiced, lifted, and even dressed. Stinespring said that everyone started wearing the same socks, and every player was required to have their shirt tucked in during workouts. These seemingly little things contributed to the larger vision that Beamer had for the team: to become mentally tougher. Stinespring said the team wanted to outwork and out-tough people, saying they wanted to build the type of team where “If a guy pushes me, I’m pushing him back.” Those changes paid off immediately for the Hokies, who won 9 games in 1993, and a couple of years later, delivered the first 10-win campaign of Coach Beamer’s tenure. The program was building something special, and it all finally came together in 1999.
Most of Hokie Nation probably knows the story of the 1999 Hokies, who made an incredible run all the way to the National Championship game against Florida State. However, what many fans may not realize is that run really began the season before. Stinespring said the 1998 squad stumbled a bit down the stretch, losing two of their final three games, including a heartbreaker to UVA in Blacksburg. Virginia Tech would bounce back to close out the 1998 campaign, with a dominant win over Alabama in the Music City Bowl. Stinespring said that win gave the Hokies confidence that they were good enough to beat anybody. The Hokies would return most of that team, and add in one of the most dynamic players to ever grace a football field in quarterback Michael Vick. During that season, Stinespring was coaching the offensive line, and he said Michael made them better pass protectors than they actually were because of his speed and elusiveness. Stiney said he called the O-line “the Secret Service,” and that group took it as a personal challenge to keep Vick upright in the pocket. Referring to Vick, Stinespring said that the Hokies “knew that at that spot, you had a uniquely talented guy surrounded by a great supporting cast on both sides…and you just felt like this team had a chance to be special.” Stiney said the team was driven to be good, and that they practiced with a purpose, and practiced hungry to be great. Halfway through that season, the 4th-ranked Hokies would welcome the 16th-ranked Syracuse Orange to Blacksburg. The season before, the unranked Orange upset the #16 Hokies 28-26 in New York, but this ‘99 group was different, and they were determined to avoid another upset. They beat Syracuse 62-0, which is when Stinespring said the Hokies knew they had a chance to be special. However, upsets are an integral part of college football, and the Hokies needed to stay focused for the remainder of the season to avoid a letdown. Stinespring pointed to Coach Beamer’s leadership as a key component of keeping the Hokies level-headed, not allowing complacency to set in, but rather keeping the team focused on the next opponent and the process of getting better. After a nail-biter against West Virginia that would later become known as the “Miracle in Morgantown,” the Hokies rattled off three straight dominant victories to end the regular season 11-0, and cement the 1999 Hokies as the greatest team in program history.
"What I do, and how I do it, is what I was taught, what I learned… I’ve never stepped on the field without Frank Beamer.”
The lessons that Stinespring learned that season, and throughout his 25 years coaching in Blacksburg, have helped shape the man and the coach he is today. Stinespring says that going against Bud Foster’s defenses every day in practice not only made Saturdays easy because of the challenge of going against the Lunchpail Defense, but also helped him develop personally. Stinespring says when he was a Graduate Assistant, he would sit outside the defensive meeting room and just listen to Bud coach. He said he was not looking for cheat codes to beat his defense in spring practice, but he was really just listening to a great coach, coaching the game. However, as much as Stinespring learned from Foster and the dozens of other great assistants that passed through Blacksburg during his time, Stinespring will always hold a special reverence for Coach Beamer and the lessons he instilled in him during his time in Blacksburg. Stinespring tells a story about an interview he did during his two seasons at JMU, where a reporter asked, “What’s it like to step on the field after all those years without Frank Beamer?” Stinespring responded that every time he steps on a football field, Frank Beamer is with him “every single day. What I do, and how I do it, is what I was taught, what I learned… I’ve never stepped on the field without Frank Beamer.” Stinespring says he constantly brings up things he learned from Coach Beamer, but says the most important lesson he carries is that “players don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” That philosophy exudes from everything in Coach Stinespring’s life and career. Before we even started our interview, Stiney told me that the night before, he spoke to former Hokie quarterback and newly named Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Famer Logan Thomas. Stinespring has Virginia Tech memorabilia scattered around his office, including a signed picture from Bryan Randall. For all the criticism Stinespring may have drawn from fans during his time at Virginia Tech, it’s clear he’s received just as much love from his players. He says that he’s blessed to still be close with many of those players, whom he calls his children.
Stinespring carries that caring heart with him every day as he works to build the Roanoke College Football program. The program was relaunched in 2023 after a nearly 80-year hiatus. The team had an abbreviated JV season in 2024 ahead of their first full season of play last year. Roanoke plays in an extremely competitive Division 3 conference known as the ODAC, which features perennial National Championship contender Randolph-Macon. However, the Maroons defied expectations in their inaugural season, compiling a solid 5-4 record. Stinespring attributes this early success to how the program has been built, a blueprint he learned from his time in Blacksburg. Stinespring says that his time at Roanoke College has been one of the most gratifying things he’s ever done in his career, but it’s also been the most difficult thing. Stinespring says that when the program first started, there was no official locker room. Players just used a room with metal chairs and plastic crates to store their equipment. He says that during recruiting visits, they had no jerseys for the players to wear for photos, just a T-shirt and a football they bought from Dick’s Sporting Goods. Stinespring says those hardships in the early days of building a program forced the concept of patience to become critical. Similar to Frank Beamer’s early years in Blacksburg, it was going to take some time for everything to come together, and for the program to get over the hump. Now, Roanoke College has a brand new locker room and weight room that compete with any D3 program in the country. They play their games in front of major crowds at Salem Stadium, the longtime home of the Division Three National Championship game.
Stinespring asked the early recruits of Roanoke College football to believe in a vision, similar to the vision Frank Beamer had for Virginia Tech back in the early ‘90’s. Stinespring said one of the most important things was hiring the right staff, because he was taught that the people you surround yourself with will be the biggest contributor to success. Just as Beamer surrounded himself with great coaches like Foster, Hite, and Gentry, Stinespring wanted to do the same, saying, “To get the right people, that was the agenda for us to be the best version of ourselves that we could possibly be.” Finally, Stinespring said that Coach Beamer taught him the importance of never getting too high or too low, because reality always lies somewhere in the middle. Stinespring says that if you take care of the little things, the big things will happen. Just like Coach Beamer, Stiney is remaining committed to the process as he tries to build Roanoke College football the same way his mentor did, through mental toughness, competition, and a genuine love for every player that walks on the field.
