In 2019 ETSU Football Will Be More Compelling Than Tennessee

Storylines? Potential Conference Championship? Bucs have it all over the Vols.

East Tennessee State has always had an inferiority complex when it comes to the University of Tennessee.

Yes, they are both Division I and state schools.

But Tennessee is bigger. They are in a larger market. They’re in the Southeastern Conference and when the two teams played each other in football the Volunteers won 59–3.

The inferiority complex is such that Buccaneers head football coach Randy Sanders spoke of carrying goalposts home if his team would be able to knock off Tennessee last season.

Keep in mind the Volunteers were coming off a 40–14 loss to West Virginia and had lost eight of their last nine games.

Funny, Sanders has made no such claims about beating FBS Appalachian State this week despite the fact the point spread is approximately the same as it was against the Vols last year and the Mountaineers return almost their entire offense from a team that was nationally ranked last season and has won 11 out of their past 12 games.

But there is one thing about the Bucs this football season that they will have over the Vols.

They will be more interesting.

And while Tennessee plays for a winning record in 2019, the Buccaneers will be playing for a conference championship.