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Why Will Healy Was Hired as ETSU Head Football Coach
On December 13 ETSU at 12:15 pm East Tennessee State will officially announce Will Healy as their next head football coach.
A hire had to be made quickly. Look at history. When ETSU waited until nine days before signing day to hire Don Riley as head football coach in 1988, there wasn’t enough time for the former Buccaneers quarterback to put a team together. A 10–34 record over the next four seasons followed.
For that matter when Tre Lamb was hired quickly last year, he had the time to put together a team, albeit largely with transfers from his old stomping grounds at Gardner-Webb.
But since the Bulldogs were a better team than the Buccaneers in 2023, that allowed enough talent to come in for him to post a winning record in his only season at the ETSU helm.
And that’s the situation ETSU finds themselves in. Players have already hit the transfer portal. The Bucs need a coach to keep their roster intact and have plenty of time to hire a staff, bring in new players, and move to Johnson City.
Healy worked previously with current ETSU Director of Football Relations David Blackburn at Chattanooga, when he was an assistant coach and Blackburn was the Mocs Athletic Director.
