Is there a team left on their schedule that the Bucs have a legitimate chance to beat? I have to believe that Garder Webb,Robert Morris and Montana State are pretty much expected losses. Warner is a very small Christian college (most high schools in Florida are bigger than Warner!) and really looks like their best chance for a win.

What about Kentucky Wesleyan?

Sadly at this point an ETSU win over Warner or KYW would be considered an upset.

We will beat Warner and Kentucky Wesleyan.

(10-19-2015 10:41 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  We will beat Warner and Kentucky Wesleyan.

I certainly hope so. It will be a lot better than a winless season. In hindsight yes we should have scheduled more games like those. Even with the FCS games we were obliged to schedule someone should have known that an all freshman team would not be competitive with the teams on our schedule and at least scheduled four or five very small programs. We could have gotten the wins and the average fan would have been none the wiser.

Some perspective; here is the records of our opponents:

Kennesaw State: 5-1
Maryville: 4-1
Charleston Southern: 5-1
Emory and Henry: 4-2
St Francis: 4-2
Mercer: 3-3

Overall Opponents Record: 25-10

Would everyone be feeling better if we would have won the Maryville and E&H games?

More perspective. Why is Kennesaw State doing that much better than us? Here is their schedule:

ETSU: 0-6
Edward Waters: 2-5 (2 wins versus fake schools)
Shorter College: 3-4 (1 win versus fake school)
Dayton: 6-0 (this is who beat kennesaw)
Point College: 6-2 (1 win versus fake school)
Gardner Webb: 2-4

Kennesaw State Opponents Overall Record: 19-21 with 3 of those wins versus fake "university of faith" schools. So it is really 16-21.

Wish we had played a few fake schools. I'll admit I was against playing college of faith in the beginning but at the time I was naive enough to think we would be competitive with the rest of our schedule, now I wish we would played some of these schools.

(10-19-2015 11:27 AM)brock20 Wrote:  More perspective. Why is Kennesaw State doing that much better than us? Here is their schedule:

ETSU: 0-6
Edward Waters: 2-5 (2 wins versus fake schools)
Shorter College: 3-4 (1 win versus fake school)
Dayton: 6-0 (this is who beat kennesaw)
Point College: 6-2 (1 win versus fake school)
Gardner Webb: 2-4

Kennesaw State Opponents Overall Record: 19-21 with 3 of those wins versus fake "university of faith" schools. So it is really 16-21.

Valid point but the primary reason Kennesaw is doing better than the Buc is they have better players.

No Pioneer League teams to satisfy NCAA rule a BIG mistake, unless Stetson and Jacksonville had something to do with that. No scholarship NCAA teams should have been on the schedule, only DIII, non-scholarship FCS teams, and rounded out with NAIA teams. Surely these experienced coaches saw this schedule as way over ambitious.

But, all will be forgiven when we thump Montana State 35-0 and win the rest.

(10-19-2015 12:00 PM)Buzzy82 Wrote:  Valid point but the primary reason Kennesaw is doing better than the Buc is they have better players.

Touche, but they also went after more transfer and juco's than we did because they are playing a FCS Big South schedule this year. This year is honestly an exhibition year for us as we can't win a championship or go to the playoffs.

I wish we would have went after more transfers and juco's sooner but I understand why they didn't. ETSU has to tiptoe around the naysayers and wanted to make sure all the players they brought in were good kids without much baggage (which transfers and juco's tend to have). Also why bring in a transfer or juco player who will waste a year playing in a high school stadium without the chance for a championship?

Are you all upset because we are actually winless or because it makes "the football startup" look bad to be winless? With the schedule we had this was a real possibility. Most of our scholarship players are probably sitting out this year so we are basically a D-2/D-3 level team right now.

(10-19-2015 12:17 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  No Pioneer League teams to satisfy NCAA rule a BIG mistake, unless Stetson and Jacksonville had something to do with that. No scholarship NCAA teams should have been on the schedule, only DIII, non-scholarship FCS teams, and rounded out with NAIA teams. Surely these experienced coaches saw this schedule as way over ambitious.

This right here. I don't mind the Montana State game because they are giving us a nice chunk of change but the others were a mistake. This schedule has been brutal.

(10-19-2015 12:19 PM)brock20 Wrote:  

(10-19-2015 12:00 PM)Buzzy82 Wrote:  Valid point but the primary reason Kennesaw is doing better than the Buc is they have better players.

Touche, but they also went after more transfer and juco's than we did because they are playing a FCS Big South schedule this year. This year is honestly an exhibition year for us as we can't win a championship or go to the playoffs.

I wish we would have went after more transfers and juco's sooner but I understand why they didn't. ETSU has to tiptoe around the naysayers and wanted to make sure all the players they brought in were good kids without much baggage (which transfers and juco's tend to have). Also why bring in a transfer or juco player who will waste a year playing in a high school stadium without the chance for a championship?

Are you all upset because we are actually winless or because it makes "the football startup" look bad to be winless? With the schedule we had this was a real possibility. Most of our scholarship players are probably sitting out this year so we are basically a D-2/D-3 level team right now.

I am upset because we are winless, because it makes the football restart look bad, AND because it makes ETSU look bad. And, we're not even a decent DIII team, which, as has been discussed elsewhere, is the result of too much local recruiting. Looking at the Montana State roster, it looks like a bunch of Tennessee players going to Montana to play a bunch of Texas and California players. Recruiting, recruiting, and recruiting Division I FCS players (as has been pointed out numerous times by others on here) must take center stage if this thing is going to get turned around. You can't tell me that these coaches don't know that.

(10-19-2015 12:45 PM)Buc66 Wrote:  I am upset because we are winless, because it makes the football restart look bad, AND because it makes ETSU look bad. And, we're not even a decent DIII team, which, as has been discussed elsewhere, is the result of too much local recruiting. Looking at the Montana State roster, it looks like a bunch of Tennessee players going to Montana to play a bunch of Texas and California players. Recruiting, recruiting, and recruiting Division I FCS players (as has been pointed out numerous times by others on here) must take center stage if this thing is going to get turned around. You can't tell me that these coaches don't know that.

What do you consider "local recruiting"? I would consider local to be the Northeast TN area from Morristown to Bristol. We have around 15 kids on the roster from that area. That's not many. Outside of Dylan Weiger I would bet that almost all of those guys are walking on (I have no idea, I am just assuming since most of the team are walk-ons) or have a small partial scholarship. I'm not big on loading up our team with "local talent" either but having some of the better local players walk-on should be the goal.

The Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga areas are places where there are some talented players. It could be that we have took some players to build up those relationships for the future. Our goal should be to get those Knoxville kids who are talented enough to walk-on at UT or similar but never play to come up here and walk-on and get plenty of playing time and maybe get a scholarship by their junior or senior year.

Everybody always talk about "we gotta get the florida players" but there are plenty of players just as good that are a lot closer that we have a better chance of getting. Ohio, North Carolina, North Georgia is where we need to develop pipelines to.

I'm not giving up on this team or this staff at all. The staff has tons of experience and has relationships with tons of high school coaches in our recruiting area. If we go 0-11 (which i don't think happens as I think we beat Warner and Kentucky Wesleyan) then you can maybe start doubting things.

I feel for the players and coaches as I know the weight of a winless season (played on the 0-10-1 team). You could argue about the recruiting philosphy all day long but whats done is done. In my opinion, the program needed a strong start to really help build some confidence within the community and more importantly; help attract talented recruits. Playing in a high school stadium and not winning a game are not the greatest recruiting tools! I came in under Jack Carlisle and that staff brought in a significant amount of out of state talent (the 1984 team was loaded up with studs) and local support was tepid at best. The natives will indeed be restless with a couple years of significant losses.

We should have done what South Alabama did and start out crushing JV/Small Academies and working our schedule up each year and join SOCON for football around 2017-18.

(10-19-2015 02:51 PM)Buzzy82 Wrote:  I feel for the players and coaches as I know the weight of a winless season (played on the 0-10-1 team). You could argue about the recruiting philosphy all day long but whats done is done. In my opinion, the program needed a strong start to really help build some confidence within the community and more importantly; help attract talented recruits. Playing in a high school stadium and not winning a game are not the greatest recruiting tools! I came in under Jack Carlisle and that staff brought in a significant amount of out of state talent (the 1984 team was loaded up with studs) and local support was tepid at best. The natives will indeed be restless with a couple years of significant losses.

I agree but to already throw in the towel on these recruits and coaches right now is silly. The players are so young and outmatched we don't even know what we have. We should not have been playing Charleston Southern, Mercer, Montana State, St Francis, Garner Webb, Robert Morris. We should have found lower tier FCS schools. All those teams were poised to have pretty good years. Even the D3 teams we scheduled are doing well. We should have got more NAIA schools. Hopefully we will learn from this and next years schedule will be more in line with a startup.

As for the "natives will be restless", who are you talking about? Everyone here is so worried that if we lose a few games that they are going to take it away again. It isn't happening. If having a bad year this year means better long term success then I'm all for it.

(10-19-2015 03:14 PM)brock20 Wrote:  

(10-19-2015 02:51 PM)Buzzy82 Wrote:  I feel for the players and coaches as I know the weight of a winless season (played on the 0-10-1 team). You could argue about the recruiting philosphy all day long but whats done is done. In my opinion, the program needed a strong start to really help build some confidence within the community and more importantly; help attract talented recruits. Playing in a high school stadium and not winning a game are not the greatest recruiting tools! I came in under Jack Carlisle and that staff brought in a significant amount of out of state talent (the 1984 team was loaded up with studs) and local support was tepid at best. The natives will indeed be restless with a couple years of significant losses.

I agree but to already throw in the towel on these recruits and coaches right now is silly. The players are so young and outmatched we don't even know what we have. We should not have been playing Charleston Southern, Mercer, Montana State, St Francis, Garner Webb, Robert Morris. We should have found lower tier FCS schools. All those teams were poised to have pretty good years. Even the D3 teams we scheduled are doing well. We should have got more NAIA schools. Hopefully we will learn from this and next years schedule will be more in line with a startup.

As for the "natives will be restless", who are you talking about? Everyone here is so worried that if we lose a few games that they are going to take it away again. It isn't happening. If having a bad year this year means better long term success then I'm all for it.

EIGHT SoCon teams automatically on the schedule next year for eight built in loses. To get three wins, we better schedule the three campuses of the College of Faith as our out of conference opponents. It's more than the loses this year -- look at the margins against FCS competition. It'll take several years to close that gap. I sure hope to be made wrong on this and things head up faster by some near miracle.

I am not giving up on the coaches or players but agree with Buc66 in that the significant scoring gap in the losses is very concerning (the other teams reserves are running up the score). It speaks not just to youth but a possible mismatch in athletic ability. ETSU had an opportunity to replicate the model that GA Southern very sucessfully put in place (won a National title in year three). There is no reason that they could not have gone down that road.

(10-19-2015 03:57 PM)Buzzy82 Wrote:  I am not giving up on the coaches or players but agree with Buc66 in that the significant scoring gap in the losses is very concerning (the other teams reserves are running up the score). It speaks not just to youth but a possible mismatch in athletic ability. ETSU had an opportunity to replicate the model that GA Southern very sucessfully put in place (won a National title in year three). There is no reason that they could not have gone down that road.

There's plenty of reason. It's damn hard to start football up when your athletic administration by and large has NEVER worked with football. Basketball school A.D., university advancement 2nd in command, Radford's compliance doofus when they got popped for all that misconduct a few years back, and an academic director that's never worked anywhere but ETSU without football. Yea, that's a recipe for disaster when wins start at the top.
What's the recipe for successful football? A damn good A.D. and president that have experience in dealing with football.