William Riddle's last start as a high school senior occurred at Finley Stadium.
It appears his first college start will happen there as well.
The former McCallie School standout, who began this season way down the depth chart at East Tennessee State, has emerged as the likely starter for the Bucs when they travel to face the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga this Saturday at 1.
Riddle threw for 172 yards and a pair of scores, earning game MVP honors, when the Blue Tornado claimed their third consecutive Division II-AAA state championship in 2021 with a 28-7 win over Montgomery Bell Academy. He then chose ETSU, where he redshirted in 2022 and was either the fourth- or fifth-string quarterback as recently as a couple of weeks ago. But injuries propelled him as well as former East Hamilton standout Haynes Eller into being the team's only healthy quarterbacks last week when the Bucs picked up their first win against Division I competition with a 41-10 win over Wofford.
Eller — who threw for 4,447 yards and 41 touchdowns in his final two seasons at East Hamilton — got the start and played in the game's first three drives before being replaced by Riddle, who entered with 8:06 to play in the second quarter with the Bucs leading 17-0 and threw for 149 yards and a score.
"When you have the whole team and you have the guys behind you, that makes it easy because everyone's got nerves," Riddle told reporters after the game. "But the nerves make you realize how bad you want to win and you want to compete at every level."
ETSU is expected to return one of its three injured quarterbacks this week, but head coach George Quarles said Monday during his press conference that he expects Riddle to start. Of course, the 6-foot, 192-pounder was expected to start last week but according to Quarles, "didn't practice very well," prompting the staff to go with Eller.
"He got in the game and it flipped," Quarles said of Riddle. "He was a different guy. He took what the defense gave him, but he also made some plays, made some throws.
"He anticipated very well."
The UTC coaching staff is aware of Riddle, whose older brother Robert spent his final season at Chattanooga after starting his career at Mercer. Head coach Rusty Wright said Tuesday that the Mocs — now 5-2 and ranked in the top 25 of both polls — will be prepared for either Riddle or Eller.
"I'm sure they are motivated to come home. That won't be an issue for those guys," Wright said during his Tuesday press conference. "They both do different things well and we'll just have to prepare to see who shows up. We'll see which one they put out there and go play.
"They're both good players. They were good players in high school, no question about it. We watched them; did all those things, and I hope they have good careers — just not on Saturday."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.