I don’t know how else to say it. I am ridiculously excited for Saturday.
It’s Halloween. It’s Homecoming. Tennessee Tech is coming to Johnson City at 7-1. ETSU has won five straight and sits alone atop the SoCon at 4-0. Kickoff is at 3:30, and the Bucs are putting spooky ETSU decals on their helmets.
Come on.
If you love ETSU football, this is about as good as it gets.
Will Healy said this week that he believes this is the most important home game ETSU has played since the 2021 playoffs and probably one of the top five home games in the history of the program.
Think about that for a second.
Look How Far This Thing Has Come
I think that’s what makes Saturday feel different.
There are people reading this who watched ETSU football disappear.
They watched the final season in 2003 knowing there wouldn’t be another one the next fall. For 12 years, Saturdays in Johnson City came and went without ETSU football.
Imagine telling those people who saw the Bucs walk out of the tunnel in the Mini Dome that day, arms locked together, what Johnson City would look like this Saturday.
Imagine telling them ETSU football would eventually return to campus. That there would be a beautiful stadium sitting there, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. That the Bucs would win conference championships, host playoff games and pack more than 10,000 people into Greene Stadium.
Then tell them that on Halloween weekend in 2026, ETSU would be nationally ranked, 4-0 in the Southern Conference and hosting a 7-1 nationally ranked Tennessee Tech team on Homecoming in one of the biggest regular-season games in school history.
They probably would’ve thought you were crazy.
Because when ETSU brought football back, none of this was guaranteed.
Those first players didn’t have what these guys have now. Those guys were sold on a dream.
There wasn’t a football stadium. There wasn’t even a football weight room or locker room at first. When the Bucs finally played again in 2015, they played their home games at Science Hill.
They were quite literally building a football program from scratch.
Then Greene Stadium opened. ETSU won the SoCon in 2018 with absurd comebacks against Furman and Western Carolina. Then came 2021: 11 wins, another conference championship and that ridiculous 32-31 playoff comeback against Kennesaw State.
Those were the moments you dreamed about when football came back.
And now here we are.
We’re not borrowing somebody else’s stadium anymore.
We’re wondering if our own stadium is going to be big enough for everybody who wants to get in.
That’s pretty damn cool.
And Now We Get a Game Like This
ETSU is 6-2, has won five straight and sits alone atop the SoCon at 4-0.
A month ago, I’m not sure any of us saw this exact moment coming. But somewhere between beating Western Carolina, suffocating Chattanooga 14-3, taking over the game at The Citadel and shutting out VMI 38-0, this stopped feeling like a team that might have a nice season.
This team can win the conference.
Now Tennessee Tech comes to town at 7-1.
If you’ve read my power rankings, you know I’ve spent most of the season waiting for Tech to fall apart.
They have refused.
They’re good. I’ll admit it.
But they’re not unbeatable. Western Carolina beat them 44-20, Wofford scored 38 on them, and The Citadel hung around until late last weekend.
Tech deserves respect.
Fear them?
Come on.
This Place Better Be Nuts
If we’re calling this one of the five biggest home games in program history, it needs to feel like it.
Tennessee is off. It’s Homecoming. It’s Halloween. Alumni are coming back. The students should be everywhere.
And please, for the love of Bucky, get inside before kickoff.
I love the tailgate too. But Tennessee Tech should come out for warmups, look around and immediately realize that Saturday is going to suck for them. I better hear Christian Wilkinson.
The Bucs are even breaking out special Halloween helmets. Spooky E on one side, with Skeleton Bucky, Mummy Bucky or Trick-or-Treat Bucky on the other.
On Halloween. For Homecoming. In a massive football game.
College football is so dumb.
I love it.
Now Go Win the Damn Thing
Eventually the ball gets kicked off, and ETSU has to be ready.
Tech can score. This isn’t the Saturday to turn the ball over, give them short fields or spend the first quarter waking up.
We’ve done the slow-start thing enough.
Not Saturday.
Get Greene Stadium involved early and let this defense go to work.
I trust the way ETSU is playing right now. I trust the way this team has responded when it’s been punched. And after five straight wins, I think there’s a confidence about this group that wasn’t there in September.
Tennessee Tech is going to get its shots.
I just don’t think they’re better than ETSU.
Especially not Saturday.
Especially not there.
Don’t Miss This One
That’s really my entire message.
Go.
If you haven’t been to a game this year, go.
If you’re coming back to Johnson City for Homecoming, go.
If you’re a student, put on something ridiculous, start your Saturday early and get inside the stadium.
If you remember the Mini-Dome, go.
If you were there in 2003 and watched ETSU football disappear, go.
If you spent those 12 years wondering whether it would ever come back, go.
If you sat at Science Hill in 2015 and watched a bunch of kids play for a program that didn’t even have its own stadium yet, go.
If you were there when Greene Stadium finally opened, go.
If you were there for the Kennesaw State comeback in 2021, you already know.
You get the point.
Because there are people in this fan base who watched ETSU football disappear, and I don’t think any of them could’ve imagined a Saturday quite like this one.
And here’s the part I keep coming back to:
This isn’t even a playoff game.
It’s a regular-season game.
That’s how far this program has come.
We’ve gone from hoping ETSU football would simply exist again to hosting a regular-season game between two nationally ranked teams with first place in the conference and playoff positioning on the line.
There was a time when we would’ve given anything just to have ETSU football back.
Now we’re debating where Saturday ranks among the biggest home games in the history of the program.
So go.
And when you walk into Greene Stadium Saturday, look around for a second.
Remember what used to be there.
Remember what wasn’t there.
And appreciate what is.
Don’t take this stuff for granted.
We know better than most what it’s like when it’s gone.
Pack Willie B.
Go Bucs.
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