Everyone’s focus was on the World Trade Center disaster Tuesday afternoon, including ETSU’s football press conference.
The Buccaneer football team will open its Southern Conference schedule against VMI on Saturday at Alumni Memorial Field in Lexington, Va., but there has been some speculation that the game may be cancelled due to the tragedy.
“It (the disaster) is too fresh in our minds right now,” said ETSU fullback Scott Carter. “It makes football seem totally insignificant to life itself.
“If we do play we’ll take hold of it and (use it as an) escape and do the best we can.”
Buccaneer head coach Paul Hamilton was also extremely concerned over Tuesday’s tragic news and said the family and friends of the people involved are in his prayers. But, he believes the country will get through it.
“Our nation has shown strength through adversity and pressed on,” Hamilton said. “Nothing stops our country from moving forward, football does not enter into the ball park with what we’re facing today.”
But if the game does go on, Hamilton’s team will be looking to build on last week’s victory over Gardner-Webb.
“I felt like our team did the necessary things to win the football game,” he said. “We had opportunities to distance ourselves and I give credit to Gardner-Webb.
“We knew we were playing a good football team and we got a challenge out of the game and a better understanding of where our team is at right now.”
The Bucs now must turn their attention to the Keydets of VMI, whom the Bucs have an 11-8 overall record against, but are only 4-6 in Lexington.
“They will be enthused about playing us,” Hamilton said. “They will have a lot of enthusiasm with the core Keydets.
“It’s not an easy place to play, they will play every play like it’s the last snap.”
Hamilton also believes they will be facing a much-improved VMI team from the one they defeated last season 38-3 at Memorial Center.
“They (VMI) obviously were playing good football as the season went on,” he said. “We’ve had tough ball games the last two times we’ve gone up there.”
Hamilton hopes to have starting running back Corey Carter, who has been recovering from a strained MCL, back on Saturday.
“We would like to get Corey Carter back healthy,” he said. “We need to get him back in the mix . he’s a talented football player.”
Carter rushed for 107 yards and two touchdowns in last season’s victory against the Keydets and the Bucs will need another strong performance from him this year.
The Bucs will also be looking to get another strong effort from the defense, which held Gardner-Webb to just 17 points.
The Bulldogs have been averaging between 40-50 points per game, but were held to just 17 and over 350 total yards against the Buccaneer defense.
“We did good things defensively,” Hamilton said of his defense, which held Gardner-Webb quarterback Jeremy Martin to less than 50 percent on his completions and forced two interceptions.
“Twice we gave them the ball inside the 50 and they only scored 17 points (throughout the game),” Hamilton said.
“We played a good offensive football team.”
The Bucs will also look to get another big game out of wide receiver and preseason All-Southern Conference honoree Cecil Moore, who hauled in eight passes for 117 yards and a touchdown against Gardner-Webb.
It was Moore’s fourth game of his career where he had over 100 receiving yards.
“Cecil is a special football player,” Hamilton said. “Cecil’s like a great shooter in basketball, you make sure he gets his shots and we have to make sure Cecil gets his catches.”
Hamilton also has a lot of confidence that Moore could have an opportunity to play at the “next level.”
“He’s got deceptive speed,” he said. “He (Cecil) gets open and runs the football down where we throw it to him.
“The guy has special things about him and he’s one of the better players in (Division) I-AA football.”
Moore currently leads the Bucs in receptions (11) and receiving yards (174) for an average of 87.0 yards per game and 15.8 yards per reception. Moore has four receptions for 80 yards in his career against VMI.
The kickoff is set for 1 p.m.

Author