By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – The Tennessee Tech football team certainly wasn't showing anything fancy Thursday night in their final scrimmage – the annual Gathering of Eagles – but were certainly wrapping up in style as they celebrated with their fans the start of a new campaign.
And with one week away before the start of the 2018 season at Chattanooga's Finley Stadium, the Golden Eagles are certainly ready to soar.
Tech focused on situations in the final scrimmage, using the event as a chance to show the fans in attendance some of the drills worked on in camp, some special teams work and an offensive breakdown as they moved down the field without the defense.
Following the event, the players greeted the fans and signed autographs.
Still, it's hard to believe how quickly time flies as it is just seven days before taking on Chattanooga.
"It really does," said Tech head coach Dewayne Alexander. "This time next week, we'll be nearly to halftime. We're one week away and it was good to get this situational scrimmage under our belt to try to get a lot of the kinks out and that sort of thing. We've got some big practice days ahead to get ready for Chattanooga."
However, in those seven days, there's still plenty to do.
"There is and there will still be after the first game," Alexander said. "We have a lot of young guys and a lot of first-time guys out here playing, but there were a lot of good things tonight. We've had a good week of practice. We had a really good scrimmage this past Sunday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday were very good practices. We had good sessions in the weight room and we had an excellent situational event tonight where we covered about everything that can happen in a game and getting guys on and off the field and substitutions of that nature.
"We'll have about an hour practice tomorrow morning, then we're going to give these guys some time off. We'll give them Friday afternoon and Saturday, then we'll come back in Sunday afternoon with a practice at 2:30 and 100 percent of that practice is going to be geared toward Chattanooga as we get prepared for that game."
From that start of camp 23 days ago to Thursday night, there's been a definite improvement, one Alexander hopes to build on as the season begins.
"They've gotten better every day," he said. "The biggest thing is that they haven't just improved on the field, but off the field as well. I see improvements on how we're handling ourselves, the little things, the detail things – getting to the locker room, being on time, doing all those things we expect them to do. They've gotten better and better and better.
"We've had some good team meetings at night where we address a lot of things from a social standpoint. We've made a lot of progress during Fall Camp and I'm pleased with it."
Still that first game being a week away is hard to believe.
"It is," Alexander said. "We're excited. We're ready to get started. In college football, you don't get to scrimmage an opponent – you just go against yourself. There's a point where you're ready to go play someone else. It's a non-conference game, so it's a chance where we can go learn a lot about our team, play hard and hopefully bring back a win as we get ready to go play the next one. After that, they just go real quick. You play, you get ready for the next one and continue on."
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