Brooks Savage was named the 19th head coach in ETSU men's basketball history on March 20, 2023. It was a return to familiar ground for Savage, who was part of the ETSU staff under Steve Forbes, playing a vital role in 130 wins and two SoCon tournament championships from 2015-2020.
Through three seasons, Savage has compiled a 61-40 overall record (.604), the third-highest winning percentage by a head coach in ETSU history, while averaging more than 20 wins per season and restoring the Buccaneers to consistent championship contention. Under his leadership, ETSU has captured the 2025-26 Southern Conference Regular Season Championship, advanced to two Southern Conference Championship Games, and established itself as one of the league's premier programs.
During Savage's first three seasons, ETSU has earned 13 All-Southern Conference honors, including the Southern Conference Player of the Year, Southern Conference Defensive Player of the Year, Southern Conference Coach of the Year, and multiple First Team All-SoCon selections, reflecting the program's sustained success and Savage's commitment to player development.
Savage won SoCon Coach of the Year in 2026 after leading the Buccaneers to an outright regular season championship. ETSU advanced to the SoCon Tournament championship game for the second time in three years, re-establishing ETSU as one of the conference's premier programs. Savage's Bucs paired an elite defense with the highest-rated offense in school history, finishing with the conference's top NET ranking while leading the Southern Conference in defensive efficiency for the second consecutive season. ETSU led the SoCon in scoring defense, field goal defense, and turnovers forced per game, and finished 56th in the country in scoring defense.
In 2024-25, ETSU rose to a third-place finish in the regular season with a roster most heavily influenced by players who had been in the program for multiple years. Quimari Peterson earned SoCon Player of the Year and was joined by Jayden Seymour on the All-SoCon first team. Peterson led the SoCon in both total points and points per game and was the 28th leading per-game scorer in Division I. Karon Boyd won SoCon Defensive Player of the Year, the first Buccaneer to win the award, in his second season at ETSU. The Buccaneers ranked second in the SoCon and 36th nationally in scoring defense and 21st in offensive rebounding rate, establishing an identity as one of the most hard-nosed teams in college basketball.
Savage made an immediate impact in his first season as head coach in 2023-24, leading the Buccaneers to 19 victories - the program's highest win total since 2019-20 - and a memorable run to the Southern Conference Tournament Championship Game that included wins over VMI, UNCG, and an overtime semifinal win over Chattanooga. The campaign marked a return to form for ETSU, punctuated by a 70-68 win over Davidson in front of a crowd of more than 4,400 at Freedom Hall on November 17. Jaden Seymour and Jadyn Parker earned All-SoCon honors, while Seymour, Ebby Asamoah and Quimari Peterson were named to the SoCon All-Tournament Team. Parker established a new ETSU single-season record with 73 blocked shots; Asamoah set a Southern Conference Tournament record with 17 three-pointers during the tournament, and the Buccaneers established a Southern Conference Tournament record for steals while tying the tournament record for rebounds.
Prior to returning to ETSU, Savage spent three seasons as an assistant coach under Head Coach Steve Forbes at Wake Forest, helping engineer a dramatic turnaround of fortunes in Winston-Salem. The Demon Deacons posted a 19-win improvement during the 2021-22 season, reached the NIT Elite Eight and recorded consecutive double-digit ACC win seasons for the first time since 1996-97. Savage helped develop consecutive Associated Press ACC Players of the Year in Alondes Williams and Ty Appleby, while Jake LaRavia earned All-ACC honors before being selected in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Savage was an assistant coach for the 2019-20 Buccaneers that a school-record 30 games, becoming just the fourth Southern Conference team ever to reach the 30-win mark while posting a program-record .882 winning percentage. During Savage's tenure, ETSU defeated Power Five opponents Georgia Tech, Mississippi State and LSU while producing 15 All-SoCon selections and earning NCAA Tournament appearances in 2017 and 2020.
Before arriving at ETSU in 2015, Savage spent two seasons at Chattanooga, helping the Mocs win 40 games and finish second in the Southern Conference in consecutive years. He also served as an assistant coach at Presbyterian College after beginning his collegiate coaching career under Forbes at Northwest Florida State College, where the Raiders won 32 games, captured the Panhandle Conference Championship and finished as NJCAA National Runner-Up.
A 2008 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Savage earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in sport management/business. As a student manager and graduate assistant from 2004-10, he was part of five NCAA Tournament teams with the Volunteers under head coach Bruce Pearl. Savage was named a University of Tennessee Volunteer "40 Under 40" in 2025 for his professional accomplishments and leadership.
Savage and his wife, Lauren, are the proud parents of daughters Waverly and Sloane and son Camden.
