ESPN Commentary

MIAMI -- Amid the joyous Virginia Tech locker room Thursday night, The Question produces a wry smile and a quick shoulder shrug.

"I'm kind of getting to the point -- " Bud Foster said, then stopped. "I'm not getting frustrated."

Sure he is. And he should be frustrated.

The Question: Why is the most consistently productive defensive coordinator in America still an assistant coach, never the head man?

The Answer: No good reason, it seems.

Every season jobs open and close and Foster remains in Blacksburg, designing different ways to strangle offenses to death. On New Year's night here, Foster completed his 14th season as Virginia Tech's defensive coordinator by smothering Cincinnati in a 20-7 upset victory. It was a breakthrough BCS bowl moment for the underachieving Atlantic Coast Conference, made possible by an unbreakable Foster defense.

This was yet another masterpiece of tackling, covering, disrupting and deconstructing an offense. Cincinnati took the opening possession 72 yards in six crisp plays for a touchdown -- and then never scored again. The last 10 Bearcats possessions ended in futility: four punts, four interceptions, a missed field goal and a goal-line stand.

When it was done, a sixth straight Virginia Tech opponent had been held to fewer than 17 points. A 12th 2008 opponent had been held below its season scoring average. And a team with the nation's 107th-ranked offense had somehow won its 10th game of the year.

Classic work by Tech's Foster children. A unit that began the year with seven new starters just kept developing, until by season's end the players were joyfully dousing their coordinator with ice water on the floor of Dolphin Stadium.

"We love playing for him," said linebacker Purnell Sturdivant (eight tackles against the Bearcats).

"Wouldn't want to play for another coach," said rover Dorian Porch (eight tackles as well).

He's proud to be your Bud, Hokies. He's proud to be a pillar of BeamerBall, having completed his 30th consecutive season of playing for or coaching under Frank Beamer -- during that time he's twice turned down big-dollar coordinator offers from Steve Spurrier. But he's also wondering when some school will make him a boss.

"It seems like it's a thing where everyone wants to hire an offensive guy," Foster said, trying for the millionth time to adequately answer The Question. "But I can hire a great offensive coordinator, and I know I can organize, I can motivate, I can delegate, I can recruit."

He can do everything but get promoted.

The same can be said of Charlie Strong, the Florida defensive coordinator who produces stellar results every year but never gets to sit in the big chair. Maybe they coach on the wrong side of the ball. Maybe they lack the smooth-talking patter that most head coaches eventually must acquire to navigate through all those face-of-the-program public responsibilities.

But both men sure know their football and sure get results. Meanwhile, less-experienced offensive coaches like Dan Mullen, Steve Sarkisian, Lane Kiffin, Doug Marrone and Dabo Swinney have gotten head-coaching jobs at major-conference schools in recent weeks.

This year Foster interviewed for the Clemson job that ultimately went to Swinney, an untested position coach who had been on the staff of fired head coach Tommy Bowden. Thursday night, Foster expressed his gratitude to Clemson athletic director Terry Don Phillips for at least giving him a chance to stick a foot in the door.

"Dabo Swinney had a six-game interview [as interim coach]," Foster said. "I had a 2½-hour interview. That's hard to compete with."

On Jan. 1, Swinney looked like a wide-eyed rookie coach as his Tigers lost a double-digit lead to Nebraska and bumbled through their final set of downs in a 26-21 defeat. Foster looked like an old pro in shutting down Cincinnati.

Virginia Tech so completely stuffed the Bearcats' inconsistent running game that Cincy resorted to calling 12 straight passes during one stretch of the late second and early third quarters. Then, after surrendering 198 passing yards in the first half to slithery quarterback Tony Pike, Tech held Cincy nearly 20 second-half minutes without a passing yard.

In the process, the Hokies turned Tony Pike into Tony Pick. They made four startlingly athletic interceptions of the Bearcats quarterback -- and nearly had a fifth that was overturned on a replay review.

Pike's final pass of the first half was intercepted by cornerback Stephan Virgil, who flew in from nowhere to swipe what appeared to be a cinch touchdown to Dominick Goodman.

Pike's first pass of the second half was intercepted by free safety Kam Chancellor, who was running stride for stride with tight end Ben Guidugli down the middle of the field and outleaped him for the ball.

Pike's first pass of the fourth quarter was a throwback screen for running back John Goebel. It was intercepted by defensive end Orion Martin, a former walk-on who laid out to pick it off at the Cincy 10 and set up the game-breaking touchdown.

And the last of Pike's 33 passes was plucked by leaping backup linebacker Cody Grimm. Roll it all together and that's great work on a quarterback who previously had thrown just seven interceptions in 291 passes this season.

"It's kind of fitting for us this year," Foster said. "We had to scratch and claw for everything."

Clearly, Foster will have to scratch and claw his way into a head-coaching job. But don't expect him to troll the lower FBS levels for that chance.

"I can be selective," he said. "I've got a great job. I've got a five-year rollover contract and Frank has been loyal to me.

"I don't need to take a I-AA job or a MAC job. I want to win on the biggest level, and we have a chance to do that here. You tend to think the pasture's always greener on the other side of the fence, but the pasture is pretty green where we have it."

Virginia Tech fans will water his pasture forever if Bud Foster will stay on it. But really, someone should hire him away.

Pat Forde is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at ESPN4D@aol.com.