By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It was a great start for the Tennessee Tech football team as the Golden Eagles opened the 2025 spring practices on Tuesday at Tucker Stadium. With the team looking to start making a run for another Ohio Valley Conference championship, the momentum started building with Tuesday's first session.
"We haven't been out here since November 21," said Tech head coach Bobby Wilder. "It's like Christmas when you're back out here. When you're a kid, you see the tree and all of the presents."
It's amazing how much of a difference a year makes as Tech entered the practice session in a completely different shape than they did this time in 2024.
"Last year, we had 65 players and seven healthy offensive linemen," Wilder said. "Today, we had 100 players, 14 healthy offensive linemen. We were able to get a lot of work done and we're really excited for day one."
The Golden Eagles have a lot of new faces entering the new year, not only playing but coaching. While there's a lot of unfamiliar names, they're all acclimating well and building up toward another exciting season -- one where the team has already been listed on Stats Perform's "Never-Too-Early" Top 25 poll at No. 19
"You're right about that," Wilder said. "On the FCS level, there's a lot of turnover, but that's just the way it works. With the way spring practice went last year, a lot of guys got opportunities. We brought in 14 guys out of the portal and returned 86. One of the great things in this and starting the Golden Eagle Collective, almost all of our All-Conference guys are back and we were able to keep almost all of our top talent."
With a lot of guys returning, it brings in something that could go a long way in the era of the transfer portal – continuity.
"That's a great point and one of the things I really like is that we have depth," Wilder said. "We have competition at positions, whether it's quarterback or offensive line. Across the board with the level of competition, that just makes us better. This past season, we went undefeated in the month of November. You want to keep gaining momentum as you go into championship time and playoff time. Depth and the level of competition is going to help us."
As the Golden Eagles worked through position drills and different situations, there were a lot of things that impressed Wilder on the first thing, but the biggest thing was obvious.
"Speed," Wilder said. "We're in the spider pads and we were just playing so fast today. It was really great to see."
The Golden Eagles will continue the spring practice sessions on Thursday in Tucker Stadium.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
