A little over a week after letting go of George Quarles, East Tennessee State has its new head coach. Tre Lamb will leave his head coaching position at Gardner-Webb to take over the Buccaneers despite interest from his alma mater Tennessee Tech and future FCS program West Georgia.
Lamb graduated from Tennessee Tech in 2012 and spent the 2013 season as the quarterbacks coach with the Golden Eagles before moving to the same position at Mercer from 2014 through 2017. In 2018 and 2019, Lamb returned to TTU to become the offensive coordinator, and his talents were quickly noticed.
Lamb was hired by Gardner-Webb in December 2019 and he did not disappoint. After the disjointed 2020-21 season in which the team went 2-2, the Bulldogs went 4-7 in his first full season in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, he guided the program to its first two FCS playoff appearances in school history. In 2022, the Bulldogs won the Big South title and won their first-round matchup against Eastern Kentucky 52-41 before falling to William & Mary in the second round 54-14. In 2023, GWU won the Big South-OVC Football Association but lost to Mercer 17-7 in the opening round of the FCS Playoffs. Lamb went 20-20 overall and 12-8 in conference games during his 4 seasons as GWU head coach.
Lamb will be looking to lead the Bucs back to the FCS playoffs in the SoCon.The school has made two appearances since bringing back the football program in 2015. They lost their first-round matchup against Jacksonville State in 2018 and reached the quarterfinals of the 2021 FCS Playoffs before losing to eventual national champion North Dakota State.
Photo Credit to Gardner-Webb University Athletics
