Could ETSU Football Lose a Member of Their Coaching Staff To Chattanooga?
Purely speculation. But not without merit.
Could ETSU lose two football coaches in the coming days?
It seems unlikely, but since everyone else has turned Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt down, athletic director Phil Fulmer steps in and brings his old offensive coordinator, Randy Sanders, down to Knoxville, offering the ETSU head football coach a big raise and possibly a path to a Power Five head coaching position he otherwise would not have.
Meanwhile, Chandler Morrison, the sports editor of UniversityEcho, Chattanooga’s student newspaper, listed ETSU offensive coordinator Mike Rader as one of his 10 head coaching candidates for the Mocs to consider.
Now what does ETSU do? Could their program withstand such a loss?
Under this scenario, it would seem the likely choice to become ETSU head coach would be defensive coordinator Billy Taylor. Safe, stable, and successful, Taylor isn’t a tremendous personality but he’s been a fine coach and incredibly loyal to ETSU.
He was an active member of the Buccaneer Football Foundation and Friends during the sport’s 12-year-hiatus from campus and returned to ETSU as defensive coordinator after five years at Tennessee Tech, where the Golden Eagles won an Ohio Valley Conference title.
From Gerald Sensabaugh to Dylan Weigel with a healthy dose of Jared Folks, Nasir Player and Tyree Robinson, Taylor has put numerous players in to a position to succeed.
Remember, it wasn’t Austin Herink who provided the winning points in the Bucs’ 29–27 come-from-behind victory against Furman, it was Weigel who collected the winning score with a safety.
Taylor even was quite the player at ETSU, starring in the Bucs’ 29–14 victory at N.C. State in 1987.
In fact, if the Mocs were interested in an ETSU assistant to take over their football program, why wouldn’t Taylor be the choice? He coached at Chattanooga after ETSU dropped football, as well as Elon, who also needs a coach with Curt Cignetti taking the James Madison head coaching position.
It wouldn’t be unprecedented for the Mocs to be interested in an ETSU coach. Chattanooga’s basketball program has hired former ETSU assistants in Mack McCarthy and John Shulman, so why not football?
It also is likely Mocs athletic director Mark Wharton would be interested in James Franklin’s staff at Penn State. Wharton came to Chattanooga from State College, so could, say, Sean Spencer, the Nittany Lions’ associate head coach who also coached with Franklin at Vanderbilt, be a possibility?
But the victors belong the spoils. After Arth, who used the Mocs as a stepping stone to the FBS, if Chattanooga would like a 50-something coach more likely to want to build a program and less likely to depart, Taylor could be a candidate.
And if he is, it could be the biggest potential departure from the ETSU coaching staff of all.
Marky Billson hosts Tri-Cities Sports NOW 12–2 p.m. ET weekdays on 1420 WEMB Sports Radio. Watch his show here and here.
