JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (Sept. 4, 2026) – The ETSU football team will open the month of September by hosting Tusculum on Saturday night. Kickoff between the Buccaneers and Pioneers is set for 5:30 p.m. from Bank of Tennessee Field at William B. Greene Jr. Stadium.
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Date: Saturday, September 5
Time: 5:32 p.m. ET
Location: Johnson City, Tenn. | Bank of Tennessee Field at William B. Greene Jr. Stadium
Teams: Tusculum (1-0, 0-0 SAC) at (RV) ETSU (0-1, 0-0 SoCon)
Weather: 84 degrees, overcast
Live Video: ESPN+
TV Crew: Keith Brake (pbp), Mark Hutsell (analyst), Kennedy Story (sideline)
Live Audio: WXSM-AM 640
Radio Crew: Jay "Voice of the Bucs" Sandos (pbp), Matt Wilhjelm (analyst), Robert Harper (sideline), Don Helman (stats)
Live Stats: ETSUBucs.com (Statbroadcast)
X:
@ETSUFootball
THINGS TO KNOW – Please click
HERE for all the "Things to Know" for Saturday's matchup with the Pioneers, presented by Citizens Bank.
LAST TIME OUT – ETSU started the 2026 campaign with a 49-37 loss to Campbell on Saturday.
ODE TO THE OFFENSE – The Buccaneer offense played well on Saturday totaling 528 yards of offense. It marks the sixth time in 13 games during Head Coach
Will Healy's tenure that the Bucs gained over 500 yards of offense in a game. Furthermore, ETSU began the 2026 campaign by moving the chains 27 times. Those 27 first downs rank only behind Western Carolina's 28 after one week of action among SoCon squads.
FRESHMAN QB EARNS SPOT IN THE RECORD BOOK IN FIRST START– Quarterback
Mason Mims, who was making his college football debut on Saturday, led the way for the Blue and Gold finishing 33-for-41 with 373 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns. The 33 completions broke ETSU's single-game school record of 30, while his 373 passing yards were the fifth-most in program history and the most ever by a Buccaneer quarterback in their first game with the program.
POTENT PASSING ATTACK – With the first week of the season in the books, the 373 passing yards for ETSU ranks fifth in the FCS trailing only Drake (535), Morehead State (463), Presbyterian (407), and UT-Rio Grande Valley (404). However, the Bucs were the only one of those schools that faced a fellow FCS program in the first week of the season.
ABOUT TUSCULUM - Tusculum started its 2026 season with a dominant 42-7 win over Bluefield State last Thursday. Tusculum is led by longtime ETSU Defensive Coordinator Billy Taylor. Taylor, who also played for the Bucs, was on ETSU's coaching staff in 2002 and 2003 and then returned to his alma mater when the program restarted in 2015. Taylor then served as the program's Defensive Coordinator through the 2023 season.
SERIES REWIND AGAINST THE PIONEERS – The Bucs and Pioneers will meet for the first time in football since November 11, 1950, on Saturday. ETSU has held the edge in the all-time series posting an all-time record of 17-4-3 against the Pioneers. Since ETSU football returned in 2015, the Bucs have faced off against current members of the South Atlantic Conference (SAC). The Bucs have won all five of those matchups by a combined score of 220-28.
For more information on Buccaneer football, visit
ETSUBucs.com and click on the football tab.
