JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (May 14, 2026) – After recently wrapping up its spring practice window, the ETSU football program officially announced its coaching assignments for the 2026 season on Thursday. Overall, the Buccaneers will have seven coaches that are either new to the staff or will be in a new role this fall. Furthermore, the Bucs have added four new staffers since spring practice began.
 
"I am very pleased with the coaching staff that we've assembled for this season," said ETSU Head Football Coach Will Healy. "We lost some talented coaches from last year's staff but I'm confident that we found some excellent individuals to fill those roles. The landscape of college football is always changing but thanks to the work of these coaches that we've brought in, I believe our program will only continue to get better as we look forward to another exciting year of football in Johnson City."
 
The first new position coach for ETSU is defensive line coach J.C. Price. Price joins the Bucs with over two decades worth of coaching experience with stops at Virginia Tech, Marshall, and James Madison. Before his coaching career began, Price was a standout player at Virginia Tech earning Third Team All-American honors by the Associated Press in 1995. Following his playing career in Blacksburg, Price was a third-round draft pick by the Carolina Panthers. He also spent time with the Arizona Cardinals during the 1996 and 1997 seasons before moving into the coaching ranks. Price began his collegiate coaching career in the strength and conditioning department for Virginia Tech (1997-98) and was also a graduate assistant for the Hokies in 2002-03. Price moved on to James Madison from 2004-11 where he helped the Dukes win a FCS National Championship in 2004 and four FCS playoff appearances overall during his tenure. Following his time at JMU, Price spent 2012-20 on staff at Marshall where he helped the Thundering Herd earn seven bowl appearances and multiple appearances in the Conference USA Championship Game before returning to Virginia Tech. During his latest stint with the Hokies, Price was most recently the Associate Head Coach/Defensive Line Coach. Price also served as Virginia Tech's interim Head Coach for the final three games of the 2021 season. Price is married to the former Jenny Root, who was inducted into the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. A standout for the women's basketball program, her 1,582 career points still rank as the fifth-highest total in Hokies' history.
 
The Bucs also added a new Assistant Athletic Director for Football Sports Performance in Rodney Hill. Hill comes to ETSU after spending the last two seasons at the University of Florida as the Gators' Director of Player Athletic Development. Hill has also spent time at power conference schools like Arkansas (2023), Duke (2022), LSU (2021), UCF (2018), and Penn State (2014) in their sports performance departments. Furthermore, Hill has also worked with performance staffs in the NFL making stops with the Buffalo Bills (2020), Detroit Lions (2019), and New York Giants (2017). Hill is 2013 graduate of Howard University and holds a master's degree from Mercer, which he earned in 2016. A native of Philadelphia, Hill is married to the former Kim Mazzapica of Boston, Massachusetts.

Paul Potter will be ETSU's new special teams coach for 2026. Potter, who will remain as the team's video coordinator, first came to Johnson City with former Head Coach Tre Lamb ahead of the 2024 season. Potter worked for Lamb at Gardner-Webb where he was responsible for all video recording, cataloging, and analysis for the Runnin' Bulldogs. Prior to his time at Gardner-Webb, Potter was a graduate assistant at Division II Chowan University where he worked with the team's defense, safeties, and specialists. He helped Chowan's kicker Jude McAtamney and kick returner Imeek Watkins collect All-Conference honors, while he was on staff.  Potter graduated from Clemson University in 2020, earning a degree in Sport Management with a focus on Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management.

As announced by Coach Healy at the end of the spring game, Chris Davis Jr. will be ETSU's new defensive ends coach. Davis Jr. played for ETSU in 2025 and earned All-SoCon Second Team honors. Davis Jr. played in all 12 games last season with seven starts. He finished the season with 40 tackles (7.5 for loss) and 2.5 sacks. The Tampa, Florida native also recorded four quarterback hurries and broke up two passes along with sacks against Murray State, Samford, and Western Carolina. At just 24 years old, Davis Jr. is one of the youngest position coaches in all of Division I football.
 
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