The first season of Eddie George as Tennessee State head coach is in the books. TSU was throughly beaten in its season finale to Mississippi State 55-10 on the SEC school’s field.
George attempted to put the loss in perspective.
“As bad as it feels now and as embarrassing as it is on the scoreboard I saw some things that we can build on going into the offseason,” Eddie George told the Tennessean. “That’s what we’re going to do. Get healthy, develop these kids we have now, bring in some young talent and bring in some graduate players that have some experience at key positions to go into next season.”
TSU came into the game undermanned without the services of Geremy Hickbottom, the team’s starting quarterback.
“We knew the challenge coming in was going to be a difficult one,” George said. “We knew we were shorthanded without Hickbottom. All I asked of our players was to fight, to grind, not to give up, not to quit, not to lay down and they did just that until the last play of the game. At halftime I said, ‘Lets just win the second half,’ and we almost accomplished that.”
Eddie George wants to make Tenn. State great againTSU completed the season 5-6, it’s best record since 2017. While it finished the season on a three-game losing streak, it also had a four-game winning streak at one point in the season. Not bad for a team coached by a guy that didn’t even see himself coaching a year ago.
“It didn’t show in our win/loss column or in terms of winning a championship, but what I wanted to do was create an identity and a culture and I think that’s being established; that still has to continue,” he said. “We did get better in the wins column and we became a team so I consider that very successful.”