I was with a group of friends at the Southern Conference tourney in Asheville when ASU's AD at the time, Jim Garner, announced a presser to name and introduce our new head football coach. We were all still in mourning over the loss of Sparky Woods (and angry at him because he'd made it pretty clear that he couldn't wait to get out of Boone). With Sparky, it was love-hate. But Jim Garner made it easy for fans to attend the presser at the Civic Center and a "meet and greet" a short walk away at Bill Stanley's BBQ and Bluegrass Club.89gradX2 wrote:Congrats Coach Moore. I remember when we hired Coach Moore. Now that I have had the chance to meet him and talk with him, I'm glad we did. Looking forward to seeing other Hall of Famers come through The Rock! Well Deserved!
Garner introduced Jerry Moore with a big build-up and a lot of hype and then Moore was given an opportunity to speak. He was soft-spoken, humble and, frankly, left all in my group scratching our heads and thinking..."Oh great, another slow-talking Texan wearing cowboy boots." It was an inside Appalachian joke at the time--because Garner always wore cowboy boots. Always. Anyway, we all thought that our football program was going to the dogs by going from Woods to Moore. Six months later, 40 to 50 players had left the program. Some transferred to other programs. Some just quit the football team, but stayed in school. Some just dropped out of college and went back home. We thought the program was on its deathbed.
And then Moore's first ASU team beat Wake Forest in only his second game as our head coach. And all was well. Sparky who?
