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Intrastate rivals Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech meet Saturday night in Cookeville. Both teams have struggled this season, but there will still be plenty on the line as they each look to grab an upper-hand in the battle for the Sgt. York Trophy.
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The game (7 p.m. ET start time) won’t be on TV, but anyone in the US can watch Tennessee State vs Tennessee Tech live on ESPN+ right here:
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Once signed up for ESPN+, you can watch Tennessee State vs Tennessee Tech live on the ESPN app or ESPN.com.
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TN State vs TN Tech Preview
This intrastate Tennessee rivalry features both the Tennessee State Tigers and the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles looking for just their second win on the season as both teams have started out 1-4. The Tennessean is predicting that State pulls it out over Tech by a score of 27 to 18, saying that State’s defense will be too much for Tech to overcome, plus Tech’s own defense gives up too many big plays.
Tennessee State head coach Eddie George said in a pre-game press conference that getting their first win last week was a big confidence bost.
“Glad that we were able to get a victory last week against Bethune-Cookman. Couldn’t come at a better time before we go into [Ohio Valley Conference] play, kind of going into it with some confidence,” said George.
He added, “We understand that now it’s the mark of a new season for us. We learned a lot about ourselves over the last four or five weeks. We feel like we’re going to have to really work hard, not make those same mistakes we did in those games we did lose when we go into conference play because these teams are very talented, top to bottom. We are excited to play Tennessee Tech on Saturday night.”
George also said that the team is finally back at full strength after some early injuries and he’s excited to get into “the meat of the schedule,” where they are starting conference play quite a bit later than normal.
“I think when you look at it, it kind of works itself out to some degree where we can work the kinks out prior to conference play … I’m curious to see how well we do when we’re at full strength,” said George, adding, “I think that can only serve us when we get into the meat of our schedule late in the season. It just kind of worked out this way this year, wasn’t by any master plan, but considering the team that we have and what we’ve gone through, it appears to be a blessing. But again, we have to go out there and play the games.”
Finally, George said that his team has to start working on the “intangibles.”
“Right now, I told our team we’re not very good because you have the talent, but when you don’t have the chemistry, you’re not playing as a team, then you’re not very good and that’s the things we have to work on — all the other intangibles. Just do your job, show up to work, play with passion, persistence, be responsible. All the little things that you think don’t matter … those are the things that we have to work on,” said George.
The Tennessee State vs Tennessee Tech game kicks off Saturday, October 15 at 7 p.m. Eastern time on ESPN Plus.