By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – As the first scrimmage for the Tennessee Tech football team went in the books Saturday, the defense set the pace early on and had some fantastic plays to antagonize their offensive teammates.
Still, the offense wasn't held empty-handed either as they put together some solid drives and converted in the red zone to put more than a few points on the board.
While there were a couple of heated moments, the Golden Eagles shook them off and kept working. After all, finding ways to dig deep and overcome the adversity presented is one of the biggest lessons to learn.
"I feel really good about how aggressive and how physical we were," head coach Bobby Wilder said. "They were definitely getting after each other. The good thing you find out in a scrimmage is when adversity is introduced – you get the officials out here, there's penalty situations. It makes it more challenging for the players and the coaches and we need that. I'm a firm believer in that you grow through adversity and we had that today."
Kanstin Brooks started the session off with a pass deflection and the first offensive series stalled with a one-yard loss. The offense responded as Dylan Laible moved the Golden Eagles up the field with rushes from Torin Baker. The drive stalled at the defensive 28, sending the field goal unit on for a 46-yard try. Hayden Olsen's kick was no good, but it was just one of few special teams errors on the day.
Four more series ended with the defense standing tall and preventing a score. The offense did make it interesting on the first red zone try as a holding call on the defense moved the ball up to the 11-yard line. Laible completed a pass to J.D. Dixon at the two, but the defense was a brick wall on the third-down try as Baker was enveloped by purple jerseys. Olsen came on for the 20-yard field goal and saw it through the uprights.
"What I loved today was how well we kicked the ball and how well we punted the ball," Wilder said. "Not every kick went through the uprights, but I like how aggressive the kickers were. The misses were long and high. Those are all things we can get fixed. I felt there were a lot in all three phases of the game to build on."
The next two drives saw offensive touchdowns as Laible completed an 18-yard strike to Ashton Maples, then D.J. Linkins tied up the ball with defender Trace Danley. Both players went down with the ball in the end zone, giving Linkins the touchdown from Laible.
On the next red zone try, it appeared that Jordyn Potts threw a touchdown strike to Luke Shields, but the call on the field was a sack. Following a pass incompletion, Olsen came on again and kicked a 40-yard field goal.
The offense got Tech to the defensive 12 on the next series and facing 4th-and-1, Dom LeBlanc drilled a 29-yard kick, but a flag for defensive holding led to the decision to take the points off the board and move the chains. It was the right call – Potts sent an 11-yard laser to Lazaro Rodriguez for the touchdown. LeBlanc's PAT was good.
Olsen added a 50-yard field goal, while LeBlanc hit from 43 yards out.
The defensive backs also made a couple of big plays as Dom Reed intercepted Maddux Richey at the seven-yard line, then Omari Philyaw picked off a deep pass in the end zone to snuff out a potential score.
"We had some really good situations at the end," Wilder said. "Today, we were practicing the end of half with a short clock. What I mean by that, when you're going end of half, the mindset's a little different. If you're on the minus side of the field, you're not going to go for it on fourth down, whereas at the end of the game and you're behind, you're in four-down territory.
"It's a different mindset – the defense can play it different, the offense has to be really careful about not turning the ball over and giving the other team a late score. I expected in this first drill, the defense would be successful and there was a beautiful interception. Every day has situations like that and this team is going to be really good at situational football. As a head coach, your proudest moment is when the guys know exactly what they're doing. You'll see that throughout camp."
The Golden Eagles continue camp on Monday as they work toward next Saturday's Gathering of Eagles scrimmage, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Tucker Stadium.
"I'm really excited about next week's Gathering of Eagles," Wilder said. "We have a great fanbase. It's exciting for the players to see the fans. This next week is about the final segments of installation. The goal line packages will go in for the offense and defense. We're going to get really specific with the special teams, so by the time we get to the Gathering of Eagles, everything's going to be installed and we can then refine what we're doing."
Season tickets for Tennessee Tech Football are on sale now – call (931) 372-3940, visit the Hooper Eblen Center ticket office or order online at TTUsports.com.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information