FSU game offers special homecoming for East Texas A&M A.D. Jim Curry

Jim Curry spent countless hours inside of Doak Campbell Stadium during more than a decade of serving as a senior administrator in the FSU athletics department.

He has never seen it through the lens he will on Saturday.

Curry, who left in early 2023 to become the athletics director at East Texas A&M, will be on the visitors’ sideline this Saturday at noon when the Lions take on Florida State. He will be wearing blue and gold instead of garnet and gold, and he will be hoping that his underdog FCS program will make a respectable showing against an FSU squad that is now ranked No. 14 in the FBS.

FSU and East Texas A&M actually scheduled this game as Curry was leaving to take his current position, and he said he has been excitedly waiting for this weekend to finally arrive.

“There’s great people all over the place there at Florida State and Tallahassee,” Curry said, adding that he has nothing but great memories from his years with the Seminoles. “I think Unconquered wasn’t just a moniker, it was a mindset and an approach to how people did their work. And the people that could embrace that and really live up to that standard, man, they loved that place. They flourished.

“It was very rewarding and it was purposeful work.”

Curry’s final seven years at FSU were in the role of senior associate athletics director. He was part of the executive team that worked on planning and building the Seminoles’ new standalone football facility, and he was involved in the process to hire football coach Mike Norvell, soccer coach Brian Pensky and others.

Now, he is leading a program that had a proud athletics tradition but is only in its fourth year of playing Division-I football.

The Lions are playing this game at FSU, along with last weekend’s game at SMU, for the financial rewards that come with playing a “guarantee” game. But Curry said it’s also an opportunity for the East Texas A&M players to compete against future NFL stars and play in a historic venue.

Not surprisingly, he has fielded a bunch of questions this week about Osceola and Renegade.

“Our student-athletes are crazy excited,” Curry said. “This will be a memory they share with their kids and their grandkids for the rest of their life.”

The former FSU administrator is excited to see how competitive the Lions can be. During a sit-down interview with Warchant, he pointed out that they won the Division-II national championship in 2017 and have won several other titles throughout their 135-year history.

Former NFL stars Harvey Martin and Wade Wilson are among their famous alumni, although the school was known as East Texas State at the time. It later was named Texas A&M-Commerce before adopting its current name last year.

Curry knows it is a lot to ask an FCS school to play ranked Power 4 programs like SMU and FSU back to back — he said the school is researching whether it has happened before — but he said the Lions were relatively upbeat after their 42-13 loss to the Mustangs.

“We walked away from that game, despite the loss, feeling pretty good,” Curry said. “We knew we left some opportunities out there, left some points out there. Six red-zone possessions — four of them were empty, though. You convert there … and it’s a whole different game.”

Regardless of the final score this Saturday, Curry knows how important this game will be for his athletics department and the entire university. Having the East Texas A&M name associated with a school like FSU, and being mentioned on ESPN and other platforms throughout the week.

It’s important for branding the university, and also for recruiting.

“If you’re excited about building, if you’re excited about being part of something bigger than yourself, if you’re excited about being part of a team that people remember and point to in the future, then this is your opportunity,” Curry said of the Lions’ recruiting pitch. “And it’s your opportunity in a place that has enjoyed success for a long time.”

Watch the full interview with ETAMU athletics director Jim Curry right here:

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