So far, it appears we did not do it the "right way." We seem to have players with great moral character for the most part, and that's great, but when it comes to putting up wins on the field, we don't seem to be getting the job done.

Kennesaw State is preseason #5 as projected by Athlon. ETSU is hoping for a winning season. Hopefully a new staff will get us where we need to be.

I have always been a football fan first at ETSU, and our struggles are tough to see. So far, we have under-delivered, especially when comparing us to KSU or Mercer.

https://athlonsports.com/college-footbal...op-25-2018

I've never heard a plausible explanation for eschewing transfers when building a program. If someone has one, I'd like to know it.

(06-05-2018 02:15 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  So far, it appears we did not do it the "right way." We seem to have players with great moral character for the most part, and that's great, but when it comes to putting up wins on the field, we don't seem to be getting the job done.

Kennesaw State is preseason #5 as projected by Athlon. ETSU is hoping for a winning season. Hopefully a new staff will get us where we need to be.

I have always been a football fan first at ETSU, and our struggles are tough to see. So far, we have under-delivered, especially when comparing us to KSU or Mercer.

https://athlonsports.com/college-footbal...op-25-2018

I can't disagree at all. There is no reason that ETSU should not be the premier program in this SoCon. GA Southern, Marshall and App State are no longer around.

What happened to the kid (QB) who transferred from Temple, Logan Marchi. Not on roster? Oops. Looks like last season’s roster — 2017-18.



http://www.etsubucs.com/football/roster/

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Football...ning-class

I count 11 transfers on their 2018 roster:

https://www.ksuowls.com/roster.aspx?path=fb

That's what happens when you let good ol' boy politics dictate what you do. Instead of going out when the program was started and hiring a young, energetic go getter that appeals to players they went out and got Carl Torbush, thus following the Ga. State model of hiring Grandpa who was someone's friend instead of finding someone like Coach Healy, who's now at Austin Peay.
And then his replacement is Rodney Allison 2.0. I hope I'm wrong on that by the way and ya'll can roast the hell out of me if I am, but I'm willing to bet that in three years we're not any better than where we are today and the offense is more predictable and stinks.

Young and upcoming coaches had no experience in how to start a program from scratch.

Cons to early successful program.

1. NO STADIUM. Huge obstacle to recruiting.
2. FORCED TO SIGN TO MANY LOCAL KIDS. Unfortunately most of them quit the program.
3. OFFENSE WAS STAGNATE and PREDICTABLE. OC refused to change the scheme.
4. The OCC SCHEDULE was too AGRESSIVE for a STARTUP PROGRAM.
5. SOUTHERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL way better than Big South Conference.

The program will be much better in the future since ALL THE CONS LISTED ABOVE HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED, except conference affiliation and no one wants to downgrade.

(06-11-2018 02:28 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  Young and upcoming coaches had no experience in how to start a program from scratch.

Cons to early successful program.

1. NO STADIUM. Huge obstacle to recruiting.
2. FORCED TO SIGN TO MANY LOCAL KIDS. Unfortunately most of them quit the program.
3. OFFENSE WAS STAGNATE and PREDICTABLE. OC refused to change the scheme.
4. The OCC SCHEDULE was too AGRESSIVE for a STARTUP PROGRAM.
5. SOUTHERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL way better than Big South Conference.

The program will be much better in the future since ALL THE CONS LISTED ABOVE HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED, except conference affiliation and no one wants to downgrade.

I agree with everything you listed except this:

Young and upcoming coaches had no experience in how to start a program from scratch.

While true, I think that is what Fulmer should have been doing and helping with.

(06-11-2018 02:28 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  Young and upcoming coaches had no experience in how to start a program from scratch.

Cons to early successful program.

1. NO STADIUM. Huge obstacle to recruiting.
2. FORCED TO SIGN TO MANY LOCAL KIDS. Unfortunately most of them quit the program.
3. OFFENSE WAS STAGNATE and PREDICTABLE. OC refused to change the scheme.
4. The OCC SCHEDULE was too AGRESSIVE for a STARTUP PROGRAM.
5. SOUTHERN CONFERENCE FOOTBALL way better than Big South Conference.

The program will be much better in the future since ALL THE CONS LISTED ABOVE HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED, except conference affiliation and no one wants to downgrade.

I agree with this. It is on the new coaching staff to produce now. Things are in place to compete at the FCS level.

Fulmer had no experience in starting a program from scratch. In fact he commented several times how the experience working with Dr. Noland and Dr. Sander to restart the football team had given him a whole new outlook on what it took to run an athletic dept. He also commented the experience gained was invaluable in his appointment as UT's AD.

As far as it "being on the coaches ", it takes players also. Only had the stadium for recruiting one class. It will take two more recruiting classes to realize full potential.

ETSU must recuit players that have the talent, desire and fortitude to be successful. Many of the players that have been in the program in the past four years couldn't or wouldn't do what was required. It's a huge step up from high school to FCS and unfortunately many high school players don't have what it takes to perform at a higher level regardless of their skill level or accolades.

Of course hindsight can be 20/20. But, was it really necessary to pay Fulmer those big bucks, by FCS standards, to administratively train him for the mega bucks he’s now banking? What exactly did he do other than bring in Torbush? Did he really raise enough start up money to justify his salary? Maybe that money could have been better spent on a Bohannon.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Bohannon

If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

(06-11-2018 06:23 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

Would not the East stands of any stadium we could build be in the sun?

(06-11-2018 06:33 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 06:23 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

Would not the East stands of any stadium we could build be in the sun?

I don't claim to know the answer to the problem, but I do know that you really only have about 25% of the stadium that are attractive seats. The east side and the lower half of the home side simply aren't quality seats. We have to find a way, either with game times or some other way, to mitigate that issue. If fans don't enjoy the game day experience, it doesn't matter whether UT is playing at the same time or not, whether we are winning, etc.

(06-11-2018 06:23 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

Went to the Western Carolina game this year and sat on the east side where visitors are at. Hot as hell. Survived.

(06-11-2018 07:39 PM)Etsuwins Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 06:23 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

Went to the Western Carolina game this year and sat on the east side where visitors are at. Hot as hell. Survived.

If I remember correctly from watching ESPN3 that day, there weren't that many people sitting out there with you on that side.

(06-11-2018 07:58 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 07:39 PM)Etsuwins Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 06:23 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

Went to the Western Carolina game this year and sat on the east side where visitors are at. Hot as hell. Survived.

If I remember correctly from watching ESPN3 that day, there weren't that many people sitting out there with you on that side.

Went to furman game. Probably less there then the wcu game. It was hot and in the sun. Point is lots of stadiums have sun on 1 or both Sides. If the team wins and competes for championships people will come. If not doesnt matter if the sun shines or not.

(06-11-2018 08:05 PM)Etsuwins Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 07:58 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 07:39 PM)Etsuwins Wrote:  

(06-11-2018 06:23 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  If Fulmer did anything of substance, the administration did a terrible job of informing anyone. From what we know right now, his salary was a huge waste of money. Having said that, I think Torbush was a good hire and Sanders was a home run hire. Unfortunately, I expect to lose Sanders as soon as he is able to find a better job since we have already treated him terribly with the helmet situation. Other than building a stadium where half the stands are undesirable due to the sun and hiring an OC who wasn't very good, I don't think we have done much wrong. In hindsight, I guess the idea that players would stay for their 5th year was a bit naive.

I fear that the stadium issue is going to be a drag on the program for many years, similar to the way the Dome was. I have talked to several people who bought single game tickets to sit on the visitors side early in the year and they were absolutely miserable. Not the first impression you want to give these fans.

Went to the Western Carolina game this year and sat on the east side where visitors are at. Hot as hell. Survived.

If I remember correctly from watching ESPN3 that day, there weren't that many people sitting out there with you on that side.

Went to furman game. Probably less there then the wcu game. It was hot and in the sun. Point is lots of stadiums have sun on 1 or both Sides. If the team wins and competes for championships people will come. If not doesnt matter if the sun shines or not.

All they can do is try to schedule more of the early, hot games during the night. Sometimes we have to schedule around other games and have to play in the day. Of course when the weather gets colder those sun seats become more desirable. I think our stadium is pretty darn good for an FCS stadium with only 17 rows. I can understand how tough it is though to sit for an entire game under intense sun.

Went to Wofford two years ago.

Fans and even a cheerleader passed out fromthe heat. To make matters worse, the lousy concession stand ran out of water before halftime.

(06-11-2018 10:07 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  Went to Wofford two years ago.

Fans and even a cheerleader passed out fromthe heat. To make matters worse, the lousy concession stand ran out of water before halftime.

Fact !!!