The following is written by a group of concerned ETSU alums regarding the status of Lion Football Head Coach Clint Dolezel. It is not written nor endorsed by The Lion Wire or it’s owner.

In life there are times where we have to realize that despite good intentions, hopes, and expectations, some things just do not work out and some people just do not belong in certain jobs and spaces. For ET Lion Football, that time has come to realize that it is time to part ways with Coach Clint Dolezel before Lion football becomes a bigger joke than it already has become.

It is hard to believe that 8 years ago we were the best Football team in the country in Division II, 6 years ago, we were a top 5 team and a serious contender, and had it not been for the pandemic, would have probably at least gotten to the national semifinals or won our second national champoinship in 4 years, taking Lion football to a place it has not been since the 1950’s when we were a small teacher’s college on the Northeast Texas outskirts.

Our first reservation is the utter insanity with which we handled Coach David Bailiff’s parting. We would certainly be in much better shape if our school had given Coach Bailiff a fair and market value contract, but our busybody administrators were too cheap to give him a good contract. Additionally, it was not even handled by a qualified athletic director. Many of you can blame the former AD all you care to, but this is not his fault. We had a good coach and the warnings that so many gave about how a move to DI would take time fell on deaf ears did just that.

Enter Clint Dolezel. First, when he was hired, the whole process stunk of nepotism with a lot of good old buddies making the decision to hire him with a total lack of serious thought. What is your recruting style? What do you plan to do to turn this ship around? How do you plan to learn to recruit since you never have before? Despite that faux pax, many of us had no idea he was such an icon in Arena Football League. Also, we have had conversations with many people who played with him or saw him play in his college days and have said that he was the first legitimate NFL prospect in a decade that ET had produced and could have been Kurt Warner before Kurt Warner was even known. The fact the Cleveland Browns saw his potential in small Commerce, Texas and his time putting up huge stats in the AFL and other Arena Football Leagues without having one losing season gave us hope that his ability to draw up plays would translate into points, yards, and wins. An arena league hall of famer as a coach and a player, and even a cameo in the movie American Underdog who was a winner.

What we did not take into account was that he would not hire people who could recruit for him, or that he would hire quality assistants, or that he was coming from a totally different world in coaching. In the Arena leagues, he did not have to look after boys who were becoming young men, nor did he have to discipline them, mold them, shape them, or teach them. He had players that were not quite good enough on paper to be in the NFL but good enough to be professional and all he had to do was pick players that fit his team culture and win. If there were any problems, they were cut and would lose a good portion of their income. There was plenty of motivation that came with being in a league where many players got their first, last, and many times only chance to get a call from the NFL or other leagues.

Coach Dolezel has said on many occasions over the past 3 seasons how he prefers Junior college transfers instead of aggressively going after Division I FBS players and standout FCS players that no longer wish to be where they are at. This is a disasterous policy and his refusal to go after them in this new era of college football shows that unless he can or will change his attitude, we will be experiencing mediocrity for a long time. ET has bled some fantastic players such as Andrew Armstrong and Brandon Tucker, but rather than restocking with good FBS players, we have taken clearence item approach. We have had many JUCO players that have been great players over the years, but since there is a roster limit for FBS teams, that means many of those players will be cut, leaving room for them to come to FCS schools and play here.

That said, while we clearly do not have enough talent to be an elite FCS team, we have enough talent to compete in the conference. We should have won at least 3-4 more games that we lost simply due to lack of discipline, foolish penalties, lack of focus, and poor coaching decisions and game management. The Lamar game was proof of that. No doubt Coach Dolezel wanted to win, as no coach who has had the success he has had in the previous roles he had would have not cared, but in the 3 wins we had this year, only one was a truly inspired win, but it was an inconsistentcy that showed the very next week. The assistants that are hired are too young and too inexperienced. We have had some coaches that were graduate assistants one years and then coordinators the next. That happens in the NAIA, but not in the world of DI football.

Let me use one final example to demonstrate how out of touch the staff is. Last season, it was reported to many of us that we had a player on the roster who was wearing the number 30. If you do not know East Texas football, you will likely ask “who cares?” However, # 30 is the only number retired in all of Lion football and all of Lion athletics, it was worn by the great “King” Arthur James, an inconic and once in a generation player who not only represented the struggle for equality for young Black Men to have a spot on the football field at ETSU and in the Lone Star Conference, when they rightfully earned it, but it also represented greatness. To this day, after nearly 60 years still holds the school rushing record. Many programs have other numbers retired, but ET only has one, and a coach that is an ET grad, an ET football great, an ET Quarterback, and now an ET head coach who should know better let something so small yet so significant slip through the cracks? That is the lack of discipline that so many of us have spoken about. Its the small things in the locker room and behind closed doors that find their way onto the playing field and become big problems.

It is not about a jersey number, it is about the mentality of the program where lack of accountability, lack of discipline, a lack of seriousness, and a lack of good judgement runs rampant, and that is the reason this program has only won 7 games in 3 seasons, and we have not even started with many players who have either transferred or quit because they were promised certain things and had the proverbial rug pulled from their feet or could not stand to play for the current staff. It is one thing to have a few do that, it is quite another to have the outflows running like a river trying to escape a flash flood. Some former players left the team early including one that was a UFL and even NFL prospect because they learned to hate the game they loved so much…..at one time.

None of us believe that Clint Dolezel is a bad person. In fact, none of us believe that he is a bad coach per se. What we do believe is that this role, as head coach of the East Texas A&M Lions is not the role for him. I could easily see him being an offensive coordinator at a FCS or even group of 5 football team. Brian Pate posted before the game on Saturday a set of statistics showing that the Lion offense did improve with noticable improvment under his command. With the rebirth of the Arena Football League, he will certainly win in that league, and to be totally fair, not all of the things that happened are his fault. It takes a special kind of person to recruit to this small hamlet and make it a winning and potent program, because it has been done for the better part of 90 years. Just remember, our alleigance should be to our school, not to an individual. Having friendships does not keep people from the high expectations of leading East Texas A&M Lion Football. We gave it 3 seasons with more money and resources than any head coach has ever had in Commerce, and we gave it time, and sadly, that time is up. Whatever decision is made or not made, we wish the best for Coach Dolezel and his family.

That said, it is time to move on.