Beamer attended Virginia Tech and was a starting cornerback for 3 years on the football team, playing in the 1966 and 1968 Liberty Bowls. He graduated in 1969 and then attended Radford University for graduate school while serving as an assistant football coach at Radford High School.

After several coaching stints, Beamer was hired as Head Coach at Virginia Tech in 1987. Beamer took over the Hokies football program that was largely unsuccessful in its first century without him as Head Coach, reaching only six bowl games in that time span. Beamer built the Hokies into a perennially ranked team.

He won Big East Coach of the Year awards in 1995, 1996, and 1999. In 1999, he won consensus National Coach of the Year honors when he led Virginia Tech to an undefeated regular season and appearance in the National Championship game against Florida State. Beamer was named the Atlantic Coast Conference Coach of the Year in 2004, his first year competing in the league. He repeated as ACC Coach of the Year in 2005 while leading his team to the ACC Coastal Division title and an appearance in the inaugural ACC Championship game where they lost to Florida State by a score of 25-22. In 2012, Beamer was the winningest active NCAA Division 1 coach.