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Can Randy Sanders Find Another Todd Wells?
Similarities to this season’s quarterback competition at ETSU are eerily similar to those of 1997.
Yesterday’s conversation on my radio show with John Hooper made me aware how similar this season’s starting quarterback competition on East Tennessee State’s competition was to 1997's.
Like this year, the Buccaneers were coming off a playoff season but had to break in a new starting quarterback.
The feeling was Jamey Chadwell, now the head coach at Coastal Carolina, would be the starter. Certainly new head coach Paul Hamilton would want to run the option, as was his background at Air Force, where he’d been hired from.
Chadwell ran well, but was injured during preseason practices. And a freshman from Forest Park, Georgia was showing off better skills anyway that August.
Enter Todd Wells. Filling the shoes of Greg Ryan, who left as the Southern Conference’s all-time leader in total offense was something of old hat to him; he’d replaced Hines Ward as Forest Park’s starting quarterback.
Furthermore, he’d shared backfield in high school with ETSU Hall of Fame running back Brandon Walker.
After four years as a starter Wells had become the Southern Conference’s all-time leader in total offense.
