JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WJHL) – A little more than 36 hours after ETSU came up three points short to No. 2 North Dakota State, head coach Tre Lamb told reporters it was the worst loss he had endured in his football career.
“And it’s not close,” he said on Monday afternoon.
“We did everything right,” he continued. “We did everything right.”
Huff commits to Savage, ETSU men’s basketball A Sunday film session revealed to Lamb that the Bucs took care of the football, committed fewer penalties and gashed one of the FCS’s best defensive fronts for 270 yards on the ground.
“The message to our team is simple – we’re not going to change what we’re doing,” Lamb said. “It’s obviously working. We’re giving a fanbase hope, we’re giving our players hope that we can play with anybody in the country.”
The final non-conference test for the Blue and Gold will come on the road at Elon Saturday. The Phoenix fell to Western Carolina this past weekend, but are another physical group that has been ranked inside the FCS Top 25.
No matter the opponent, Lamb hopes the performance against the Bison has his players believing in what’s possible. But, as it turns out, this team has been full of belief since the start of summer camp.
“We have some dogs on that team,” senior running back Bryson Irby said. “We’ve got players that love each other and care for each other.”
“I wouldn’t say there’s a big difference in belief,” he continued. “But, we all believe in each other and we believe that we can win the SoCon with this team.”
“We have a bunch of winners on our team,” sophomore defensive tackle Brendan LeBlanc added. “We have a bunch of smaller guys, but guys that, like Irby said, play with a chip on their shoulder.”
“I’m excited to watch our football team be motivated to go win a game,” Lamb said. “I don’t think I’m going to have to do much motivating this week.”
“They’ve got a bad taste in their mouth after what happened the last three minutes of that football game Saturday night – in front of our home crowd. We better be pissed off at practice tomorrow – we better be ready to play.”
Kickoff at Elon is slated for 6 p.m. on Saturday.
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