So how much did it cost Virginia Tech to keep football defensive coordinator Bud Foster in the fold?

Try $800,000.

That's the price tag of the five-year annuity addendum to Foster's current contract that was struck Dec. 15 after the Hokies' longtime assistant coach had received a reported $700,000 offer from Georgia to take its coordinator's position.

Ironically, the Bulldogs found another coach with Tech ties to fill the job, hiring ex-Hokie and longtime NFL assistant Todd Grantham on Monday.

Foster, 50, was already the highest-paid assistant on Frank Beamer's staff, drawing a base salary of $402,000, plus various bonuses.

"As we said back in the fall, if Bud is going to be a defensive coordinator, he needs to be that here," Tech athletic director Jim Weaver said Thursday. "He doesn't need to be going somewhere else."

The new agreement will pay Foster $800,000 in deferred compensation if he remains employed at Tech through the 2014 season. Should Foster leave prior to that date, he would not receive any of the annuity.

The only other qualification to the 2014 date is that in the event that Beamer resigns or does not continue in his position of head coach, Foster will receive the deferred compensation with the effective date of Beamer's departure.

There is nothing in the new deal about Foster being the Hokies' next head coach.

"I want to ride this thing out with [Beamer]," Foster said when the deal was struck. "We've been doing this for a long time together and there's no reason to stop ... let's go finish this thing. It's a good deal all the way around."

Foster came with Beamer from Murray (Ky.) State in 1987, when the latter was hired as Tech's head coach. After a slow start this past season, Foster's unit finished with a flourish and wound up 12th in the nation in total defense (295.5 yards per game) and ninth in scoring defense (15.6 points per game). It marked the sixth consecutive season that Tech's defense has finished in the top 12 in least yards allowed and in the top 10 in points allowed.