Tennessee State University head coach Eddie George learned a lot about his team in the season-opener against Notre Dame.
TSU fell 56-3 to Notre Dame, but George said his team showed him a level of resiliency he felt he could work with.
“It wasn’t about the score. I mean most people look at that score like ‘you got your ass kicked, it was embarrassing,” George told the media on Saturday. “I disagree. I saw a team that didn’t quit. We played the team up there hard, and I saw a team that was not wide-eyed and I was like ‘ooh, we got something.”
The resilency that George saw in the Week One opener has played out in the last two weeks as TSU has put together back-to-back wins against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and reigning Big South Conference champion Gardner-Webb to improve to 2-0. The 27-25 win over GW came on a game-winning 50-yard field goal as time expired.
“We knew the challenge coming in and we wanted to just trade blows with them, find a way to win it in the end. And that’s exactly what happened,” George said. “We faced a ton of adversity where the game could have gotten away from us.”
Now in his third season at the helm of Tennessee State University football, the former All-Pro NFL back say he feels like his program turned a corner in Saturday night’s win at Nissan Stadium.
“I think we broke through tonight. It’s a signature win when you have 11 penalties, turnovers, missed opportunities to close the game out and still have the gumption, the guts to find a way to win against a top-notch FCS program is huge for us,” George said. “That’s a game where you’re battle-tested and it’s going to go a long way for us.”
George and Tennessee State are receiving top 25 votes in the STATS FCS poll as they prepare for a bye week before taking on UT-Martin on Sept. 30.