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.