Virginia Tech football: What’s Justin Fuente’s buyout?

If Virginia Tech were to fire Justin Fuente, the Hokies would be spending quite a bit of money to get a new head coach.

It’s never easy to be the guy that follows up a legendary football coach. That’s never an easy thing to do. People often have high expectations and unfair criticisms for the folks who have to follow up a coach who helped define a program.

But, when Justin Fuente left Memphis and had some immediate success at Virginia Tech, it appeared as if this may not be the case for him. Unfortunately for Fuente, and the Hokies, he hasn’t exactly had anything that’s resembled consistency for most of his tenure in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Fuente won 10 games his first season but hasn’t gotten double digits in the win column since then. Virginia Tech has posted losing records under Fuente’s leadership on two occasions: in 2018 and 2020.

So far, 2021 isn’t off to an amazing start as Virginia Tech is 3-2 entering Saturday’s game vs. Pittsburgh.

Justin Fuente has a pretty big buyout if the Virginia Tech Hokies wanted to fire him

So, let’s assume the Hokies want to move on from Fuente at some point this season, what should they do? Well, if they’re going to fire their head coach, it’s important that the Hokies already have Fuente’s successor in mind. Teams can’t be indecisive about who their head coach’s replacement will be.

In addition to that, Virginia Tech would have to get some boosters to write some pretty big checks because firing Fuente will be expensive.

Fuente’s salary is set at $3,825,000 for this season (which is a lot of money), but it’s Fuente’s buyout that makes things so difficult for Virginia Tech. The Hokies would have to pay Fuente $10 million if they fired him, according to USA Today.

Fuente still has of games left on this season’s schedule to prove he’s the right coach for the Hokies, but he’s been in Blacksburg since 2016 and he hasn’t had much success in recent seasons. It’s understandable why Virginia Tech fans might be ready to move on. But the matter of paying that buyout might make things difficult.

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