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East Tennessee’s Insularity the Cause of ETSU’s Demise
The Buccaneers’ football and men’s basketball programs have gone from penthouse to outhouse in short order. The reason may not be so much a single individual but the area’s mindset itself.
The demise of the East Tennessee State Buccaneers athletic program is a product of their insular environment.
Their football program is coached by a man who was hired based on his accomplishments at a local high school. Their basketball program is coached by a man who continually pines for his days as an assistant at Tennessee.
They were hired by an athletic director, Scott Carter, who was groomed for the position in large part because he had not only played football at ETSU, and worked in athletic development at Tennessee, but had gotten his start taking orders from David Mullins, himself an insular hire as he was promoted from tennis coach to athletic director at ETSU.
Unfortunately, the most notable thing Carter did at ETSU was play henchman for the administrators that took away his program.
Even when it seemed he was more cheerleader- going so far as to lead cheers on court during the Southern Conference men’s basketball tournament- than true leader.
