No decision yet on ETSU starting quarterback for this week

Randy Sanders took over the East Tennessee State football program with a question at quarterback.

Four games later, he still appears to have one.

Temple transfer Logan Marchi, a junior, has started all four games for the Buccaneers, whose only loss in four games was to Tennessee. But in the most recent game, a 29-27 victory over Furman, backup Austin Herink — who had started the three previous seasons — came in for a struggling Marchi and led the Bucs back from a 27-6 deficit.

Herink, who is from Cleveland High School, threw for 202 yards and a touchdown while leading three second-half scoring drives in the win.

But Sanders wasn’t ready to make a decision at quarterback heading into the Bucs’ big clash against the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga this Saturday night in Johnson City. Both teams are 2-0 in Southern Conference play.

“It’ll be decided during practice,” Sanders told reporters at his weekly news conference. “Logan was the starting quarterback going into last week’s game, but I felt like we needed to make a change. How it shakes up this week will be determined in practice.

“Whatever is decided, it doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. We are going to put the best guy out there that gives us the best chance to win. At the beginning of the season, we felt like Logan gave us the best chance to win, so that was the decision we made. Austin obviously made a statement on Saturday night.”

Marchi has completed 47 percent of his 108 passes for 597 yards with three scores and six interceptions. Herink ranks sixth all-time in ETSU history with 5,368 passing yards.

ETSU isn’t the only SoCon school with a quarterback situation, although Mercer can’t really do much about its issue. Freshman Robert Riddle, the former McCallie School standout who had led the Bears’ 30-24 victory at Samford a week earlier, suffered a broken collarbone in last week’s 38-31 loss to The Citadel and will be out “for a while,” according to coach Bobby Lamb. They appear to be in good hands, though, as 2017 SoCon freshman of the year Kaelan Riley started all of last season and the first two games of 2018.

“It’s really difficult because his best ball is ahead of him. He had a solid game last week and did some solid things on Saturday,” Lamb said of Riddle at his weekly news conference. “He made a couple of mistakes, but as a freshman you’re going to see that, but his best ball is ahead of him and it is just unfortunate there.

“He was out of the pocket and tried to do what he needs to do to get the ball out of bounds. … He could have thrown it out a little bit earlier, and it was just one of those awkward falls on his shoulder. That’s just how it works.” VMI getting closer Virginia Military Institute has a 21-game losing streak dating back to a 37-7 win over ETSU midway through the 2016 season, but that skid may not last much longer.

The Keydets have dropped their last two games, at home against ETSU and at Western Carolina, by a combined five points. In the 52-50 loss to the Catamounts in Cullowhee last weekend, VMI scored with 22 seconds to go on a touchdown pass from Reece Udinski to Jakob Herres, but the potential tying two-point pass was dropped in the end zone.

“I am very proud of be the head coach of this football team,” VMI head coach Scott Wachenheim said after Saturday’s loss. “I loved the way they fought and never quit. Even when (Western Carolina) went up by two scores late in the game, we knew we could drive it down and score. The defense came up with a big pick and we came down and scored and just missed the twopoint conversion.

“I was proud of the way we fought but sad we couldn’t come away with the victory.”

Udinski was named league offensive player of the week, completing 43 of 72 passes for four TDs and 491 yards, the seventh most in SoCon history.

The Keydets have four consecutive tough contests. They host Mercer this week, then have trips to Samford and UTC with a home game against The Citadel in between. After that comes quite possibly their best opportunity for a win when they host Division II Tusculum on Nov. 3.

“Whatever is decided, it doesn’t mean it’s set in stone. We are going to put the best guy out there that gives us the best chance to win.”

– RANDY SANDERS, ETSU COACH