The FCS coach delivers a blunt message to the opponent: welcome to football in a big way
Bobby Wilder sent a message to the residents of the subdivision of the football championship a year ago: this is not the same technological team of Tennessee that languished in a FCS moor for more than a decade among the conference titles.
Last weekend, Wilder delivered the message on the form of Roadrunner-To-Wile of E. Coyote and Coyote On-The-Head to visit Chattanoga and his chief coach, Rusty Wright.
Wilder had offended last week when Wright made fun of the need for Tennessee Tech to ascend at noon because the Golden Eagles are in the middle of a multimillion -dollar renewal project to the Tucker stadium that has the place temporarily without lights.
The Golden Eagles brought the lights of Chattanooga in a dominant 45-17 beating of a Mocs team that entered the contest outside the national classification.
“His chief coach, Rusty Wright, made a comment on Monday at his press conference on our facilities and had to move the game at noon and not have lights and joke: ‘Welcome to the university football of great times,'” said Wilder, who built from the Old Dominion Program and signed for technological reconstruction about 20 months ago. “Then, (Saturday) was both a statement of ‘Welcome to the great university football to Rusty Wright’.
“What we did today, as a football team, was a dominant performance, from the beginning. Jump 21-3 before, ending the game as we did; the way we played, just a relentless effort in the three phases.
“When you have a game like this in which we are classified nationwide, they are receiving votes, then you make a statement like that with a 45-17 victory. That is great for our program, big to Tennessee Tech and Big for the OVC.”
Chattanooga and Tennessee Tech, in Cookeville, Tennessee, are separated by only 100 miles; They have been playing their intermittent rivalry for 87 years and the MOCS had a dominant advantage of the 30-10 series as this game approached.
The Golden Eagles, No. 16 in the last Top 25 of AFCA FCS, No. 19 in the Top 25 of the Nation FCS, demolished Chattanooge for the first time since 2004; It was a game that ended as fast as it started with Tech 21-3 after the first quarter.
“The fact that they had less 12 yards running in the first half, we were physicists in the Scrimmage line, our seven front, supporters and defensive line, were extremely physical in the scrimmage line,” Wilder said. “We approach well in the back-end and we really force them to be one-dimensional in a game in which we could obtain a tremendous pressure on their quarterback.
“There was a point where we had run the ball 24 times and we passed it 26. That is what we want to be, we want to be an offensive that can establish the race in the scrimmage line. The offensive line was really good in the execution game.”
Tech has now won seven consecutive games dating from last season, when it had a 7-5 brand and shared a conference title. The host of the Golden Eagles Davidson this week.
“We have a team that loves to play football, they really surround themselves, they support each other,” Wilder said. “They knew the impact of this game and chattanoga and the fact that they were receiving votes in the Top 25. All were ready to play. There was a tremendous approach to continue being an effort football team. What we are trying to establish is a team that plays each game of the game, either defense, offense, special teams with a tremendous effort.
“You saw the same effort in the first play that you saw the end of the game when we had our backup copies when trying to avoid scoring a touchdown. They are there against their offensive and we are playing our 2 and our 3. Only a tremendous effort in the field.”
Chattanooga saw him first hand.