New ETSU coach isn't waiting for wins

Randy Sanders hopes to be on a 20-year plan as the new football coach at East Tennessee State University.

Luckily his wife, Cathy, has him on a diet that will help that become far more plausible.

"I don't get to eat pizza and cheeseburgers everyday anymore since she got here," Sanders jokingly griped Friday afternoon. "She made me eat black-bean-and-sweet-potato tacos the other night.

"I'm used to having bacon grease as a condiment. She's making me eat healthy."

After almost 30 years as an assistant at Tennessee - his alma mater - Kentucky and Florida State, the 52-year-old Sanders finally found a head coaching opportunity he was comfortable with, taking over a program that was revived five years ago. It helped that Johnson City is only about 30 minutes away from his hometown of Morristown and he is close to his two brothers and his sister, each of whom live "about an hour away."

He was asked for his thoughts on finally being a head coach.

"Ask me on September 1st," he responded.

"I've had some opportunities before, but it wasn't something I was interested in doing or that eager about," Sanders explained. "This opportunity came along, and it was a job I wanted, so I'm very blessed and fortunate to have that opportunity. (ETSU president Brian) Noland and (former ETSU athletic director Scott) Carter have given me this opportunity, and I look forward to it and every day is a new learning experience. There are always things that pop up you didn't know about. Probably after six, eight, 10 years of doing this, there won't be that much new pop up, but at the rate we're going, it's going to last for a while."

Sanders, most recently the offensive coordinator at Florida State, is not devoid of talent at his new job, although he'll have to figure out new ways to utilize it. He returns three-year starter Austin Herink at quarterback, although it appears the former Cleveland High School standout will be pushed by Temple transfer Logan Marchi, a 6-foot, 205-pound redshirt junior who threw for 1,687 yards and nine touchdowns in 12 games with the Owls.

Five of Sanders' returning players were selected to All-Southern Conference teams last year.

He will have to figure out a solution to getting the Buccaneers to be effective in the running game. Only seven Football Championship Subdivision teams averaged fewer than ETSU's 71.0 yards per game on the ground in 2017, and the Bucs only averaged 4 yards per carry once - against Limestone, a Division II program.

Sanders is riddled with the task of taking a program that is 4-12 in the SoCon since returning to the league in 2016 and making it competitive as quickly as possible.

Maybe it will take two seasons. Maybe it will happen in 2019. Sanders isn't looking past this year, though, as he tries to build a program the best way he can.

"We're on a 'get it done now' plan," he said. "Some people come in and try to overhaul the program. They want to redshirt all the freshmen and build for year two, year three, year four, whatever it is. If we have freshmen good enough to help us win now, that's what we're going to try to do, because we want to win.

"These kids that have been here, that have been working their butts off, they deserve the best opportunity they can get to win. I'm not going to expect them to accept the fact I'm not doing everything I can to give them the best opportunity to win because I want to be good in three years, four years. I want to be good right now. We're all working towards that, and it's what I want to do and what I expect to do.

"We're going to show up on Saturday and see how it all shakes out."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.