Most of the fans where I am also just sit there, which honestly doesn't bother me as much as it does some people. I clap and make noise when there is a big play, but I just don't find football to be a very exciting sport to the same degree as basketball or even baseball. However, I do find it entertaining and I enjoy going to the games to support the program. The students around me (sitting in seats of season ticket holders who didn't show up) knew one of the tight ends from the team but didn't know whether that was an offensive or defensive position...

My point in saying this is that I am glad those people who aren't enthusiastic football fans still come to the games. When a city with a population of 70,000 can get 10,000 to attend a football game, then that game is clearly the "place to be" on that Saturday. The thought of an ETSU football game being considered the place to be is a win for the program.

Without the Mullins’ era, you never get the current success. President Noland even said as much on stage during Friday’s ceremony. Athletics needed to reset. Building new facilities and putting the program back on better financial/Title IX footing would not have happened otherwise. This HOF weekend was a classy move by the institution. And Mullins being honored on the field (without boos) was also a great reflection on our university. Just a fantastic weekend. The reviews of the tailgate and game day experience is spot on. As lifelong Buc fans, this was another dream come true. It’s what we always wanted and never had in football’s previous incarnation. This reincarnation is certainly special.

(10-03-2021 02:08 PM)Buc2002 Wrote:  Without the Mullins era, you never get the current success. Athletics needed to reset. Building new facilities and putting the program back on better financial/Title IX footing would not have happened otherwise. This HOF weekend was a classy move by the institution. And Mullins being honored on the field (without boos) was also a great reflection on our university. Just a fantastic weekend. The reviews of the tailgate and game day experience is spot on. As lifelong Buc fans, this was another dream come true. It’s what we always wanted and never had in football’s previous incarnation. This reincarnation is certainly special.

I think we get what you're saying, but one could also say that without WWII, the Marshall Plan wouldn't have been possible. I.e., you present a false (imo) dichotomy. There could have been another pathway. Imagine, just as a thought experiment, if we had had Dr. Noland as prez back at that time. Do you really think things would have gone down the same way? How ironic it was that when paulie first tried to bring back football he (in)famously said: "sometimes you don't know how much you miss something until it's gone" (maybe *very* slightly paraphrased). Which (obviously) showed he was clueless on most things athletic all along.

Another way to think about it is this: Just how far back did killing football set ETSU? I think at the time most of us speculated from 10-15 years, minimum,
on up to "a generation". Well, somewhere in there is the truth. Did Europe get a huge leap forward because of the Marshall Plan? Of course. But was the price worth it? We'll never know where we'd have been now, if there had been honesty in that *mythical* "football fundraising" back at that time. Or if the Pirate Club, Jo Ann Paty, et al, had stood up and said "no", or resigned en masse. We can't know that. Just sayin'. Was surviving paulie really worth it to get to Noland? Answers may vary there, somewhat depending on the respondents' age. I would say not, but realize that others may feel differently.

And I don't want to detract from the joy of what's going on now, but we *must* remember how we got here. Some of us may not have all that many years left, and that wasteland was a big chunk of "what could have been".

Rather than post this in one of the older threads in which Russaw has been mentioned, I'll just add this nice, detailed article by Trey Williams here, since he (Russaw) was on the field and honored yesterday:

Trey writes up Russaw

I maybe(?) should note that Marky Mark, as I recall, did a piece on Russaw way back when, in Sports Talk, and Jerry Robertson included some stuff about him in his book about ETSU football several years ago.

(10-02-2021 11:54 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  I didn't want to acknowledge mullins being at the stadium today but seeing as another poster broached the subject, seeing mullins being honored was revolting. I will never forget the words he used to describe the reasons to a group of supporters who were trying to stop the dropping of football and causing the SoCon to force ETSU out of the conference.
Just some of his dumb comments:

The other Tennessee Regional Universities, Tenn Tech, Austin Peay, etc. will be dropping football in short order.Other Peer Universties in Kentucky and the Carolina's will also be dropping football.

Basketball will only draw 1500-2500, the days of ETSU drawing 5-6000 is over.

Football will never return to ETSU.

All of his comments proved to be false.

He was never a real AD, just a figure head appointed by paulie.

He was a successful tennis coach but also was totally disliked by his peer coaches, SoCon leadership and most of the ETSU coaching staff.

It took Dr Noland approx 2-3 weeks after meeting with many supporters and understanding the problems that mullins had created, to relieve him of his duties and in short time mullins was thankfully gone from ETSU.

I have to quit thinking about him right now. I not going to let his presence today ruin the wonderful and yes, a big time feel to a ETSU Gameday experience.

I tried to explain in my earlier post about the Big Time Gameday Experience today. So glad others had the same vibe.

I've advocated several times that ETSU is ready to move on and up.

GO BUCS

You know — lying to people is beyond reprehensible. That’s what Stanton-Mullins did on a regular basis. They just made up things and actually said them publicly, and got away with it at the time. We sure needed a Board of Trustees then. Looking back, it was 12 years without football while a number of our peers left us in their dust. Being here now from that debacle is a minor miracle.

(10-03-2021 04:55 PM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Rather than post this in one of the older threads in which Russaw has been mentioned, I'll just add this nice, detailed article by Trey Williams here, since he (Russaw) was on the field and honored yesterday:

Trey writes up Russaw

I maybe(?) should note that Marky Mark, as I recall, did a piece on Russaw way back when, in Sports Talk, and Jerry Robertson included some stuff about him in his book about ETSU football several years ago.

A great article about a great man.

(10-02-2021 08:48 PM)Buc76 Wrote:  Bucs definitely outplayed and out muscled Wofford. Several crazy calls by Refs, two really bad punts by Bucs that gave Wofford short fields. On several occasions Refs couldn't figure out where to place the football. On one play they signalled TD for Bucs, then decided player was down, no TD, then placed the ball at three different spots and then they decided to watch the replay, still didn't spot the ball correctly. For some reason they wouldn't show the replay, so no way for fans to see if our receiver was down or not. Play happened right in front of my section, everybody was yelling. It didn't look like he was down and ref that followed the play all the way to endzone signalled TD but that was was overruled.They called a personal foul for face mask against the Bucs on a beautiful backside pass play that resulted in a TD. It was a good legal block, no face mask, no personal foul. The replay showed it very plainly but refs wouldn't look at replay. It was a terrible call that took away another TD. I usually don't blame the refs because they have a hard job but this crew was incompetent.

Tremendous game day experience. Tailgating everywhere, The Marching Bucs Band is really good but today they were terrific. They play and cheer constantly. Their halftime show was electric. For the first time, fans in every section finally got into the game. Even the old folks in the center section were standing and cheering like crazy for the defense and it resulted in a Illegal procedure penalty that took Wofford out of going for 3yds to get a first down and field goal range late in fourth quarter. Huge penalty. Buc fans may have finally become an influence for the team. Just hope they now understand how they can help the team. Student section was standing, cheering the whole game. Never witnessed a Buc football game that had the feel of big time game till today, it was FANtastic.

If you missed this game or haven't been to a game this year and love football, get your gang together, get there early
for tailgating fun, at Greene Stadium next Sat. You will see the biggest, fastest Buc team ever. You will see a two time All American tailback Qual Holmes. You will see a tremdous band. You will become part of a huge, loud and boisterous crowd.I can't guarantee that Bucs will win but I will guarantee you a terrific GAMEDAY experience.

GO BUCS

i wish all area fans could have taken in the day Saturday. The campus and game day experience was electric. Easily our greatest team I believe. And folks it is worth the ticket not only to see this team but to watch one of the best marching bands I have ever seen. The band rocks just like the football team! Go Bucs!

[/quote]

You know — lying to people is beyond reprehensible. That’s what Stanton-Mullins did on a regular basis. They just made up things and actually said them publicly, and got away with it at the time. We sure needed a Board of Trustees then. Looking back, it was 12 years without football while a number of our peers left us in their dust. Being here now from that debacle is a minor miracle.
[/quote]

I know for a fact that they both also at least passively continued to undermine football with donors and alums after the effort to bring it back was underway. I personally witnessed Stanton cracking jokes and rolling his eyes about it on a couple occasions. They truly felt it was a fools errand to try football at ETSU. They were wrong then and wrong now. Dave should’ve been embarrassed to walk out there yesterday. Nothing could more clearly expose his failures in leadership than to witness what has happened in his absence.

(10-03-2021 02:08 PM)Buc2002 Wrote:  Without the Mullins’ era, you never get the current success. President Noland even said as much on stage during Friday’s ceremony. Athletics needed to reset. Building new facilities and putting the program back on better financial/Title IX footing would not have happened otherwise. This HOF weekend was a classy move by the institution. And Mullins being honored on the field (without boos) was also a great reflection on our university. Just a fantastic weekend. The reviews of the tailgate and game day experience is spot on. As lifelong Buc fans, this was another dream come true. It’s what we always wanted and never had in football’s previous incarnation. This reincarnation is certainly special.

section W here i Boo'd

Perspective..............(part 2)............

"A Look Back" (to that point in time 18 years ago)

That sorta speaks for itself, but it sure would be quite interesting to track down some of those mentioned and get their comments and opinions on the revival. After we get paulie's and mullins's opinions, of course.

(10-04-2021 02:46 AM)posterformerlyknownasthedoctor Wrote:  Perspective..............(part 2)............

"A Look Back" (to that point in time 18 years ago)

That sorta speaks for itself, but it sure would be quite interesting to track down some of those mentioned and get their comments and opinions on the revival. After we get paulie's and mullins's opinions, of course.

Of course Mullins was just Stanton’s hand picked stooge — just following orders. He was honored for being an exemplary “yes man”? He obviously still doesn’t get it - he showed up to get his “honor”.

I noticed that Nate Brackett is doing our punting. Some of those punts left us in a hole and hurt the teams field position greatly. I think Garrett Taylor did the punting last year and is still on the roster. Has he been injured?

(10-04-2021 06:54 AM)bucfan81 Wrote:  I noticed that Nate Brackett is doing our punting. Some of those punts left us in a hole and hurt the teams field position greatly. I think Garrett Taylor did the punting last year and is still on the roster. Has he been injured?

Not that I know of. I don't think Sanders is happy with either one of them. He made a comment on the post-game show that he needed to find someone who could punt the ball but they haven't had any luck in doing that so far.

So punting is a weakness, but also I noticed we were outran in the secondary here and there over the last few weeks. Blown coverage and then unable to catch runners breaking free from the linebackers. We've got to do a better job with that. Hopefully we'll be ready for the Citadel. They'll mix it up just enough to make some big plays, so we cannot be missing assignments or get distracted. They'll exploit weaknesses in our secondary if we let them.

We're also starting to get pretty banged up. Isaiah Wilson is out and was on crutches if I remember correctly, Blake Bockrath was on crutches on the sidelines, so it's a good thing we've got some decent depth or I'd be really worried. I did hear that Julian Lane-Price was back Saturday although I don't think he had any catches.

If we're going to make a decent playoff run, we need to tighten a few things up.

BUCs D only gave up 3 plays over 6-7 yds. Wofford was 0 for 8 on 3rd down and 0 for 1 on fourth down. BUCs D
allowed only 45 offensive plays. Anyone Pro, P5, FCS, etc would take those results every game. Every team, regardless of what league they play in, have players that can run and make plays. You just have to make more plays and less mistakes than they do. The Bucs certainly did that. They dominated Wofford. The 3 plays came after 2 bad, short punts and an interception. Yes, that hurt but no team or player is going to be perfect.

The punter, for some reason, had a bad day. He is, and has been a very good punter. This was his first game as the designated punter. First game jitters, nervousness, whatever. He will be better with experience. Look at Keltner, kicker of the week several times, accurate, dependable. He misses a chip shot with a few minutes left in game that would have definitely been the game winner.

The best at whatever they do, make mistakes. You cannot coach perfect or be perfect but you can work to be the best.

GO BUCs.