Mike Jenkins had to go back a ways to recall the last time he returned an interception for a touchdown.
Beyond his college career. Even his high school career.
“I had a pick six in eighth grade,” Jenkins, a senior safety for ETSU, said after returning an interception 25 yards for a score during the Bucs’ 35-27 win against West Georgia on Saturday at William B. Greene Stadium.
“I just executed the call, man,” Jenkins said. “I was supposed to have the middle third, so I played the middle third weave with a crosser. They tried to run a crosser with a post behind it. I weaved off the crosser, came back to the post. He threw me a gimme. I got vertical. I saw probably like two people in white and then I saw six blockers in blue. I liked my chances.”
The interception return by Jenkins staked ETSU (2-2) to a 28-24 lead. The Bucs followed that with the longest touchdown pass in program history to salt away the win, a 88-yard heave from Mason Mims to Brandon Winton with 6:10 remaining in the game.
“That’s crazy to me,” Winton said. “I know I’m going to remember this for a long time.”
ETSU had 1 net offensive yard in the second half at the time of the record-setting scoring strike from Mims to Winton.
“I know we were slow in the second half offensively, but Brandon, we did a great job,” Mims said. “I mean, he just beat his guy straight up, and I just wanted to give him opportunity. He did a great job today, for sure.”
ETSU dominated the first half statistically, gaining 16 first downs and running for nearly 200 yards on the ground alone. The worm turned in the second half. The Bucs had 1 net offensive yard after halftime before the big pass play from Mims to Winton.
West Georgia (0-3) scored all of its first half points within a span of about three minutes, but other than that, the Wolves had difficulty stopping ETSU in the first two quarters. The worm turned in the second half, with West Georgia moving the ball and limiting the Bucs’ offensive opportunities.
“We didn’t move the ball at all on the offensive side the second half, except for when we had to,” Bucs coach Will Healy said. “And I think that the beauty of it for me, I think we grew a lot on the defensive side of the ball. We kept putting our defense out there and our defense kept responding.”
At the end of the first quarter, ETSU had dominated time of possession and number of plays, running 19 offensive snaps compared to four for West Georgia. The numbers flipped in the second half, and, for the game, the Wolves ended up outgaining the Bucs 411-377 and running 80 plays compared to 65 for ETSU.
“You know, the question is, can you win games when you’re not playing great on the offensive side of the ball? And we found a way in the second half to get that done today. So kudos to our defense.” Healy said.
It was a bend but don’t break kind of day for the ETSU defense. The Bucs allowed West Georgia to convert six third downs and the Wolves ended up with the time of possession advantage as well. Wolves QB Colton FitzGerald attempted 50 passes, completing 29, and racking up 324 yards and three touchdowns.
Mims completed 12 of 14 passes in the first half and finished the game 15 of 24 for 198 yards, including the history-making 88-yard scoring strike to Winton, who had been plagued by a handful of drops through the first three games of the 2026 schedule.
“If you told me after the spring and summer, who’s your most dynamic weapon? It would have been hard for me to say somebody over Brandon Winton,” Healy said. And I think that early on, the first two games, I feel like he was kind of trying to find himself a little bit. … Hopefully a play like that today keeps giving him some confidence, but I think that receiver room is really talented.”
It was also a strong day for the ETSU running backs. TJ Peyton finished with 94 yards and a touchdown on 17 carries. Jaiden Daniels had 69 yards rushing, a personal best, including a career-long run of 40 yards.
As the Bucs head into conference play, they’ll be doing so without graduate wide out Xavier Gaillardetz, who was in a boot on the sideline on Friday and is expected to be out for quite some time, according to Healy.
“Just a freak accident in practice, not even a contact injury, just running around and messed up his foot and is going to have to have surgery,” Healy said. “And so hoping that we can get him back, but it’s going to be a stretch.
“And I told him the deal now is you got to go coach those wideouts and make sure they’re doing everything humanly possible,” Healy added. “That offense is doing everything humanly possible so you can buy yourself another week and get back and come play football for us. Hate it. The worst thing about this game are injuries, and to see him go down in practice was devastating. But I’m proud of the way our guys responded. And the beauty of it is I think we’re really deep in that room and it’s going to give somebody else a chance to go make a play.”
ETSU has little time to waste to correct its issues, with Western Carolina coming to Johnson City next week to begin Southern Conference play.
“Biggest game of the year for us and up to this point,” Healy said. “And so our focus will need to be awesome this week to find a way to get this win.”