It’s become common for power conference football programs to build massive indoor facilities.
When storms and lightning forced a lengthy delay in ETSU’s game at North Carolina, both head coaches Will Healy and Bill Belichick seriously discussed finishing the game in UNC’s indoor facility. Healy revealed the conversation Monday during his weekly press conference, as the Bucs prepare to face West Georgia at home Saturday (Noon, ESPN+).
“My initial conversation was, let’s just go in the indoor, right?” Healy said. “I mean, y’all have a 120-yard indoor. Let’s go in there and let’s go play. Let’s make national news.”
Healy shared it with a couple of members of the UNC staff and said it got a laugh. “Well, then Belichick comes over to me during the rain delay and he legitimately asked the question, can we go in the indoor, and obviously with television and the fans that were there and everything, it wasn’t the right move.”
Since the game was being played at UNC, they had to follow Atlantic Coast Conference rules. That included, as Healy explained, there had to be at least one snap in the fourth quarter, or wait through a delay that lasted a minimum of three hours, for a game to be considered complete.
Once play renewed in an eventual 35-3 loss to the Tar Heels, Healy compared it to games during the pandemic in 2020: “You had those first four or five games where there’s no one in the state. The fourth quarter felt like a COVID game. You could hear the other sidelines. You could basically hear the play call, right? But it didn’t matter to us. We went out there and competed.”
Cash the check
ETSU received a $500,000 payday from UNC for playing the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill. The Bucs got a similar payout last year when they faced Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in the second game on the schedule. And the 2027 docket includes a trip to Florida State.
“That’s really big for your athletic department. So I’m happy to do that,” Healy said. “I will tell you that when you go play a top five or top 10 team, it’s hard. It’s really hard. When we went to play Tennessee last year, I got on that bus after leaving Neyland Stadium and felt a lot different than I did leaving North Carolina. And there’s differences in what they’re paying those rosters in both of those spots.”
Seven ACC teams played FCS opponents in Week 2, and they swept those games by a combined margin of 359-20. The UNC-ETSU game was the closest of the seven. ACC teams averaged a staggering 64.8 points in the other five contests. That’s created some debate as of late regarding the value of power conference teams facing FCS opponents, including from Dave Clawson, who was Healy’s college coach at Richmond and part of the ACC Network broadcast crew on Saturday in Chapel Hill.
“If you gave me another chance to go play those guys again this year, I would go do it again,” Healy said. “So I see what Coach Clawson’s saying and I see when you look at the overall scheme of ACC vs. FCS opponents, I get why fans aren’t really interested, but there was nothing that I left that field with on Saturday that said we can’t compete. Did we win? No we didn’t. And is that a loser mentality? I really don’t care. My thing is. I left that and I watched that on film and said, there’s a chance for success. Like we’re winning that one-on-one battle. And that was exciting to me to see.”
Pitt stop
Healy said that Saturday’s kickoff is scheduled for noon so as to not conflict with the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway later that evening. Healy praised the relationship the program had built with BMS president Jerry Caldwell before dropping a quip about actor Brad Pitt, who’s going to be the night race’s grand marshal (a fancy term for the person who tells the drivers “start your engines).
“I know that there’s a lot of men in the Tri-Cities area who are frustrated with Jerry for bringing Brad Pitt to the Tri-Cities area. And so add me to that list,” Healy said.
Buc Bits
West Georgia (0-3) is favored by 2.5 to 3.5 points, despite being the road team and winless. The Wolves have faced Chattanooga from the Southern Conference, and Division I Group of 5 teams Kennesaw State (Conference USA) and Arkansas State (Sun Belt Conference) this season. … Offensive coordinator Jayson Martin currently is serving as interim head coach for West Georgia, as Steve Englehart was suspended just before the season opener against the Mocs for an unspecified compliance violation. … ETSU currently leads the SoCon in third down conversion rate (53.8%). … Bucs’ LB Dre Delinois continues to lead the SoCon in tackles with 32 total stops, finishing with double digits in each of ETSU’s three games. That’s tied for sixth among all FCS defenders. … The Bucs are opening a three-game home stand, with SoCon contests against Western Carolina and Chattanooga to follow the next two weeks. It marks the first time ETSU has played three straight at home since 2019. Healy was the head coach at Charlotte then.