JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Nov. 22, 2025) – The ETSU football team sent out its senior class with a 28-26 victory over The Citadel on Saturday afternoon from Bank of Tennessee Field at William B. Greene Jr. Stadium. The win, which was the Bucs' fourth in a row, improves ETSU's overall record to 7-5 and 5-3 in SoCon play.
For the third straight game, Jacolby Criswell started under center for the Bucs. Criswell completed 18 of 26 passes for 244 yards and a touchdown. Criswell also totaled 33 yards rushing on seven carries, which was second on the team.
Criswell only trailed veteran running back
Devontae Houston in terms of rushing yards on Saturday. In his final college game, Houston had a career-high 28 carries for 125 yards and two touchdowns. Houston's performance not only put him over 1,000 rushing yards for the season (1,008) but also his pair of scores brought his season touchdown total to 13, which is the fifth-most in a single season in program history.
Charlie Browder was ETSU's top receiving threat on Saturday, finishing with a career-high 55 yards on three catches. Overall, nine different Bucs caught a pass in the win over the Bulldogs.
Defensively, the Bucs were led by Ty Anderson. Playing in his final collegiate game, totaled a career-high 14 tackles and picked up the lone sack for the Bucs on the day. ETSU also picked off a pair of passes in the win that effectively ended each half. Cole Keller, usually a tight end, came in to play defense on a Hail Mary throw by Citadel to end the first half, and he picked it off. At the end of the game, Kensly Johnson, another senior, intercepted a pass that clinched the win for the Bucs.
SCORING PLAYS
FIRST QUARTER
- ETSU 0, The Citadel 7 – After the Bulldog defense forced the Buccaneers to go three-and-out on their first drive of the afternoon, The Citadel offense broke off a 63-yard touchdown run on its first play offensively to open the scoring.
- ETSU 7, The Citadel 7 – ETSU promptly knotted the score at seven on its next drive. A pair of lengthy pass plays to Keller (15 yards) and Meggett (26 yards) got the Bucs deep into Citadel territory. Houston would ultimately punch it across the goal line from a yard out to pull ETSU back even.
- ETSU 14, The Citadel 7 – Following a 12-play drive on its first scoring drive of the day, the Bucs put together an 11-play, 80-yard possession to gain their first lead of the afternoon. 72 of 80 yards came through the air with the last being a 17-yard strike from Criswell to Karim Page to put the Bucs out in front, 14-7.
SECOND QUARTER
- ETSU 21, The Citadel 7 – ETSU's next score came in the second quarter. The Bucs, who got the ball back after stopping the Bulldogs on a fourth down, converted a key fourth down of their own with a 17-yard pass from Criswell to Xavier Gaillardetz. Following a short run, another big pass from Criswell to Keller (24 yards) got ETSU to the Citadel's five-yard line. It took three tries, but the Bucs got it into the end zone on a one-yard touchdown run by Jason Albritton to grow the ETSU lead to double digits, 21-7.
- ETSU 21, The Citadel 14 – The Bulldogs inched closer as the second quarter wore on. It looked like ETSU's defense would get off the field, but a costly penalty gave The Citadel an automatic first down on a punt. Citadel then converted a 3rd-and-8 and a 3rd-and-2 with the latter scoring its second touchdown of the contest to make the score 21-14 ETSU.
- ETSU 28, The Citadel 14 – A trio of significant penalties committed by The Citadel helped aid ETSU's next scoring drive. Houston helped the Blue and Gold cash in on those mistakes by the Bulldogs, thanks to 49 rushing yards on the drive. Houston broke off for a 15-yard touchdown run to push ETSU's lead back out to 14, 28-14.
THIRD QUARTER
- ETSU 28, The Citadel 17 – After deferring until the second half, the Bulldogs put up some more points as the third quarter began. The Citadel held the ball for over seven minutes (7:09) and moved it 62 yards. However, the Buccaneer defense kept the Bulldogs out of the end zone as they had to settle for a 33-yard field goal try. That attempt split the uprights, making it 28-17 ETSU.
FOURTH QUARTER
- ETSU 28, The Citadel 23 – Citadel's next score was set up in part by a big play to end the third quarter as the Bulldogs converted on a 3rd-and-9 with a 24-yard pass. After that conversion, the Bulldogs crossed midfield and then connected on a long 39-yard touchdown pass to make the score 28-23. To try and get within a field goal, the Bulldogs went for two but were unsuccessful, keeping it a five-point game.
- ETSU 28, The Citadel 26 – In what proved to be the final score of the game, The Citadel got the ball around midfield and got it into the red zone. ETSU's defense, however, once again stepped up to force The Citadel into a field goal try. This one, which was also 33 yards out, was good to make the score 28-26.
Other News and Notes from Today's Game
- With today's win, Head Coach Will Healy is tied for the second-most wins by a first-year coach in program history with Paul Hamilton in 1997 and Tre Lamb in 2024. Only Randy Sanders won more games in his first season (eight) than that. Additionally, the 2025 Bucs are the 12th ever to win seven or more games in a season. It is also the first time since the 1996-97 seasons that the Bucs have won seven or more games in back-to-back seasons.
- As mentioned earlier, Houston surpassed 1,000 rushing yards in the win over The Citadel. Houston is just the seventh ETSU running back to reach this milestone in a season, joining Quay Holmes, George Searcy, Jacob Saylors, Brandon Walker, Gaven Varner, and Brian Edwards.
- The fourth win in a row by ETSU marks the fourth time since football returned in 2015 that the program has won four or more games in a row. The other times were 2018 and 2021 (twice).
- Ephraim Floyd totaled four more catches on Saturday, bringing his season total to 63. That total is the fifth-most in the history of ETSU football for one season. Only Jeff Johnson, B.J. Adigun, and Greg Johnson have caught more passes in a season for the Bucs than Floyd did in 2025.
- With four extra points made on Saturday, Ewan Johnson finished the season with 49 made extra points. That is tied for the second-most in school history, trailing only Tyler Keltner's 51 makes in 2021.
- 2025 was one of ETSU's best offensively in the history of the program. ETSU broke single-season school records in pass completions (242), passing yards (2,930), completion percentage (64.7), yards per game (442.3), and first downs (286). This season's Buccaneer team ranked top 10 all-time in the history of ETSU football in total offense (2nd – 5,308 yards), passing yards per game (2nd – 244.2), points per game (2nd – 32.5), yards per play (3rd – 6.0), rushing yards (5th – 2,378), pass attempts (5th – 374), yards per carry (T-5th – 4.7), rushing yards per game (6th – 198.2), rushing attempts (10th – 511)
- Saturday's game was the final game of the college careers of Ty Anderson, Jai Barnes, Nate Brackett, Jacolby Criswell, Jackson Crosby, Chris Davis Jr., Ashton Flinn, Ephraim Floyd, Drew Francis, Sterling Galban, Devontae Houston, Nick Hunter, Kensly Johnson, Cade McNamara, Hakeem Meggett, Trevor Moffitt, Karim Page, Isaiah Potts, Oscar Roden, Braxton Shipp, Taharin Sudderth, William Wells, Kendall Williams, Seth Williams, Teddy Wilson.
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