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Why Are ETSU Coaches Begging For Fans?
Or, why is ETSU always telling us they are something they aren’t?
Caught up in the excitement of North Dakota State coming to Johnson City last year for a game with East Tennessee State five months ago, then-ETSU football coach Tre Lamb said at his weekly press conference before the game he “expected” 15,000 fans at the game.
Lamb used the word “expected” a lot during his short tenure at ETSU, and frankly it made him look arrogant.
But in this case, Lamb wasn’t just being arrogant; he was being stupid.
He was expecting not only an attendance mark that would shatter the previous record of 13,863, set on Sept. 17, 2016 when the Buccaneers defeated Western Carolina at Bristol Motor Speedway, but was more than the Bucs’ current stadium could hold.
Their yard seats only 7,694 fans. While more may sit on embankments, and college football teams are known for including everyone from media to players to hot dog vendors in their attendance counts, it’s a safe bet if 15,000 people tried to show up at an ETSU home football game the fire marshal that effectively made the Minidome obsolete a generation ago would return to the ETSU campus handing out fines and sending people home.
Perhaps that’s why Lamb stayed mum when “only” 11,040 showed up for the North Dakota…
