NCAAbbs

So I'm in Elizabethton, and therefore, I am naturally trying to get out.

But as I'm sideswiping cars and running red lights down Elk Avenue into Johnson City, I happened to drive past Elizabethton's finest resturaunt, Burger King, and noticed a "GO ASU!" message on the eatery's sign!

Literally an hour drive from Boone and less than 10 minutes from ETSU's own campus.

"GO ASU!"

I'd also like to point out that just beyond this sign, there was a message the Post Office had put up saying they had "J. Whitten photos for sale!"

So don't tell me what a great football town Elizabethton is.

You can brag about basketball victories in the middle of the night that will get no media attention whatsoever, but folks, this is how bad ETSU is getting their @sses kicked.

Thanks Paul! Thanks Dave!

There's a lot of people in Carter County, particularly Hampton and Roan Mountain, that can make the trip to App easy and do support the Mountaineers. If you drove through Roan Mountain during App's playoff run, almost all of the small local businesses there had signs supporting App. I know that several cars in Roan Mountain parked along the side of the road and honked as App crossed the state line. Also quite a few fans in Betsy. In Johnson County, just a few minutes from Boone, there are hords of Mountaineer fans and Matt Hill does a great job covering them for The Tomahawk paper with features on the team. The support of the Mountaineers is a big reason for our decision to cover Appalachian State football along with our usual Tennessee coverage. I had a stringer cover most of Appalachian's football games, including all of their playoff games with pictures and we double-covered their first home game after beating Michigan.

It's sad that ETSU had to come to cutting football. I know you and I have talked about this Marky. -- Also, I applaud Brian Smith's work in the Bristol paper. If ETSU still had a football team, we would cover them in a heartbeat over App. Sadly, there's no football team at State. Hopefully the right people can change that.

The App State crowd that just made their third annual trek to the championship game in Chattanooga was phenomenal.

Honestly, if we had fans like that, dropping ETSU football would have never been a consideration. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for bringing back ETSU football, but I made the trek back to JC to attend our playoff game in the Dome against Villanova, and I was very disappointed that it was only half full. I know the excuse is that the students were out of school (Thanksgiving weekend), but that was very disappointing.

Other good excuses are the dome sucks for watching a football game and the administration doesn't promote anything effectively.

I lean to the lack of promotion and management as dominant causes.

I was covering ETSU football at the time.

Now, a few things to consider.

The 4,700 crowd for the game was an embarassment- students or no. I even gave my first "this is a bad sports area" commentary that evening because I was so disapointed with it.

However, of the eight games played in Division I-AA football that day, it was the sixth best crowd. Something to think about if ETSU ever decides to reverse the direction of their athletic department.

Personally I think a late November game draws more fans in Memorial Center than an outdoor facility. The only way it wouldn't is if Memorial Center has been so maligned through the years that people wouldn't go there for a hurricane, which is a possibility.

I can't speak for promotion, though I think it was bigger then with Keener Fry and all. What I will say is that we gave ETSU lots of promotion in the media back in those days.

Remember, there was an extra TV station, an extra newspaper, and the same amount of radio talk shows in '96. WKPT-TV- on its bargin budget, went to Montana to cover the playoff against the Grizzlies.

Now, this does not necessarily mean the situation is hopeless. I think had Fry been able to continue to work his plan after Stanton came in attention would have grown. I also think if ETSU would take on Tennessee it would ruffle feathers- but do so in such a way it would be a positive in the long run because it would allow ETSU to step out of the Vols shadow in their own hometown.

I was at the game and was very disappointed in the attendance. I discussed the game with friends at work the following week and they told me that they had heard in the local media that the game was a sell out and they thought it would not be worthwhile trying to get in. Hard to believe but I have heard this from more that one person. Whenever we do get football back it is imperative that we get tickets sold for the games and never take it for granted again.

81- I think this stems from the fact too many in the local media- not naming names but an overall mindset- blindly believe the best and aren't willing to criticize.

Here's something about the Villanova game. Chip Kessler said during the second quarter of his radio broadcast that he believed there were 7,000 fans in the stands. It turned out to be 4,700.

Now, I'm pretty sure Chip just estimated the fans incorrectly. But it leads to the mindset- where we talk about how great it was for ETSU to compete with Oklahoma and not wonder "I DON'T CARE IF MR. JENNINGS FOULED OUT- 6:14 WITHOUT A FIELD GOAL IS UNACCEPTABLE! THIS IS A CHOKE JOB!"

Higher standards lead to better results. The most memorable game in ETSU history should not be a defeat.

Also doing everything on the cheap (or having a flea market mentality) is a problem there. Or you could say they half-jack everything. You could also point to pure incompetence at the school over the last 30 years.