I received a phone call from a young student at ETSU requesting donations to the ETSU Foundation. I very calmly told her that as long as Dr. Stanton and Dave Mullins were on the job, and there was no football program, that a donation "ain't gonna happen"!!! She said she understood and the conversation was over.

Has anyone else been contacted during this annual telefon? I wonder how many responses these young students are receing like mine.

Not yet, and hopefully everyone who gets the call will tell them the same thing, best I remember they record the responses.

They will get a similar response from me. I have always helped in the past to the extent I could afford. Now though, it has gotten to the point where I must make my donations only if they make the decision to bring back football. It is that important to the future of the athletic program that they get football and get into a real leaque. Hopefully the next few weeks can make the difference with people making Mullins answer the important questions.

They called me, too. I told them that as soon as they brought back football, I'd be happy to, until then NO.

81- I know what you're saying, but can I ask you something?

Now, do you really think, even if David Mullins uses these radio spots to urge ETSU fans to join the Nazi Party, it will do ANYTHING?

First of all, he's got Don Helman next to him. Do you honestly think Helman is going to risk his job calling ETSU sports and not step in if a tough question comes through?

Then you have Bud. Bud stated last year that he felt the 2007 Bucs were better than the 2003 and 2004 Bucs. Is he going to hold Mullins to the fire?

Then there is Kenny Hawkins. Kenny Hawkins will give David Mullins biscuits and then wonder aloud, on the air, why we should ask what really happens when a college athlete is dismissed for "personal reasons" or "violating a team rule."

This trio isn't going to make anyone forget Mike Wallace.

It's very telling Mullins is not going to be on with Joe Avento, the honest to goodness ETSU beat writer for the Press.

Don't you think?

Pitt, you are exactly right about the hosts. That is my great fear that they will feed him cupcake questions and never ask the simple question as to how Austin Peay affords football. That is why I hope the callers keep hitting with the real questions and not let him evade. That is if they let those types of callers on the show. I just want to think that he cannot run forever.

Let's say you ask him that- how Austin Peay can have football and ETSU can't.

Now, I'm going to anticipate his answer. He'll say something along the lines of different needs in different conferences- which, naturally, is preposterous because dropping football was what got ETSU kicked out of the SoCon.

And then, in the unlikely event he'll be asked a follow-up along those lines, he'll say something like- "What has been said many times before, the finances at the time necessitated this move. If you look, Austin Peay also de-emphasized football to non-scholarship status for a stretch prior to our need to drop football, so they are in the same boat as we are."

And there's no way you will be able to stay on for the third question- which will be "But considering the demise of the program to the Atlantic Sun because of dropping football, don't you think it would have been wise to have bitten the bullet financially and instead restructure fundraising so a football program could be sustained, along with Southern Conference membership?"

And then Mullins says something like "We had Title IX concerns, and we find that the Atlantic Sun is better for many of our sports, such as softball, than the So Con was."

I'll do the interview for you.

And I don't mean to burst anyone's bubble here. But ETSU has been able to sell the decision to drop football to a large amount of the public- including the sports editor of the leading newspaper covering them and the leading talk show host in town.

This is an interview designed to put out talking points for the Helmans to recite ad nauseum.

And we'll be picking those answers apart on this board, and Wardrobe by Jim Ignatowski might, underline MIGHT, be able to copy some of them and pass them off as his own.

The last 2 or 3 times they've called me I've said I wouldn't donate until they brought back football. The last girl I spoke with said she's heard "a lot of people" telling her the same thing. So it must be a pretty common response.

I wish Pitt was doing the interviewing of Mullins on the Sports Monster. Now that is what we need! He should not be allowed to say that Austin Peay is essentially different from ETSU when they are both Reagent schools and basically the same. Also, every other state school in Tennessee is affording football and he has no excuse to say that ETSU cannot.

81- Mullins has been running scared of me for a long, long, long time.

Back at Sports Talk, they did an interview with Mullins. I'd been covering ETSU for years. He knew of my talent and my ability to interview.

Mullins refused to do the interview if I was the one doing it.

Now, generally, a publication with guts then says "We decide who interviews us ourselves. The interview is cancelled."

Unfortunately, around here they allow the subjects to make such demands and throw journalism out the window.

Not Brian T. Smith journalism, who tells me something and then gets upset when I report it.

Actually, that was the downfall of Sports Talk right there. I left after a few months after that- and the paper then tried becoming a real ETSU fluff piece- doing what tricitiessports.com does- running press releases- telling everyone what a great job Mullins was doing.

They went out of business soon afterwards.