I heard today on the WJCW's morning show a quick taped cut of Paul Stanton discussing what needs to be done to bring back football.

Next week he will bring in a guy to look at where to put a stadium.

A few questions- first- WHY DO YOU NEED TO BRING SOMEONE IN FROM THE OUTSIDE FOR THIS?

Here's what I can tell you-

If you build it on campus- you will have the chance to draw more students and you might be able to lure Science Hill to play there (if you want to- lots of torn turf then).

If you just refurbish the old Roosevelt Stadium- you might be putting good money into bad- but you will be able to take advantage of a neighborhood and downtown.

Okay- now give me whatever fee you're going to waste on that guy.

But I guess the one thing I want to know is-

WHY ISN'T DAVID MULLINS GIVING THIS REPORT TO WJCW AND TOM TAYLOR?

Isn't Taylor the team's former play-by-play announcer? Was he not enthusiastic enough about a 7-20 team for Mullins' memory?

Either Mullins is not for football (and he's never publicly stated his support for it) or Taylor realizes what a fool he is and went over his head (like reporters had to do to get a clarification that Ed DeChellis had interviewed at Penn State).

Guys, when any other college in the world states they are adding a program or building new facilities, the guy in charge of the project is generally the AD. Certainly he's the guy who makes the appearances on the talk shows.

What's the deal here?

Stanton is on tomorrow morning for the final cut of a taped interview. If it comes on like it did last time- listen at 8:40 a.m.

Finally- The East Tennesseean is at it again.

Another column and a letter against football's return-

Now, maybe this is a reflection of the student body and maybe it is not. But two very important questions here-

A- Why no "counter attack" from the Football Foundation? You can afford an ad saying "Give us $25 to join" in the Johnson City Press football contest, but now you can't buy an ad in the East Tennesseean with a counterpoint?

B- Anne Koehler speaks of the apathy the old football program had.

Did ETSU football begin to die on the moment of its greatest triumph- the playoff win against Villanova that drew just 4,700 fans?

Two years later the discussion to drop the sport began.

ETSU has to start- NOW- a mass marketing campaign for their athletic programs. They have to open their wares up to the public and be extremely media-friendly and answer the tough questions instead of getting offended by them.

It also wouldn't be a bad idea to start doing some releases about how to potentially buy tickets for an NCAA Tournament berth, or talk about how they might bid for NIT home games.

Some advertising also wouldn't be a bad thing. Remember the old ads on Sportsline for some sort of T-Shirt promotion for Buc B-B-B-B-B-B-aaasketballlllllllll?

Those were the days where 10,000 might come to the games. Maybe the facility won't hold that any longer, but you get the feeling if there were 10,000 fans who WANTED to go to the games some fire marshalls might not be so anal.

Dammit I can't believe I'm saying this, but you bring up an interesting point. Now that being said, you're an alum, do you support football coming back? If so, here's the challenge, YOU write to the East Tennessean, Troy DeCastro did last week, I've heard others that are going to do it, so write to the East Tennessean why you think it's important.

Do I support it's return? Definitely.

That's why I'm a member of the football foundation.

And don't tell me what to do.

What I've basically been trying to do is get some phone calls returned so perhaps we could do more than write a letter- but actually buy some advertising or perhaps hand out flyers.

Will YOU hand out flyers for football's return, Andy?

Hmmmmm?

lol you're so far behind it's not even funny man. I'm one of the few that is actively talking with the students and different organizations.
Have fun on your sabbatical, the whole week it lasts.