tonight was uh an interesting night to really say the least right um and I want to say hats off to Tennessee Tech coach Wilder and that crew um they came in here and they played one of a ball game you know first games are what first games are right um you know you you you look early and you think that you're going to have an opportunity to go boat race somebody a little bit and and just keep going and then all of a sudden then you sput out and um momentum football's a game of momentum and I thought you know we had it early Tennessee Tech uh you know March back they took it and that was okay um I don't think this group panicked uh we wanted to play better um and what you saw from this team was um growth right a lot of new faces um some adversity uh and you have to learn how to win in a lot of different ways in college football you got to learn sometimes how to play from ahead you got to learn how to play from behind um and I I think we got it all in one you know rain delay playing from ahead coming from behind look I didn't want to draw it up that way but what I felt was this football team learned a lot about itself his character you know um and winning does take what winning takes right it takes it takes commitment uh for four quarters 60 Minutes every play and we need every bit of four4 60 Minutes um to get the victory so you know there's a lot to learn be learned from game one uh to game two at the end of the year nobody's going to look back and remember what the score was what people are going to remember that it was a victory and so I'm going to celebrate it that way right uh I got a lot of confidence in this team I think we can get better uh we we we had some a couple of losses uh uh injury wise in this ball game so I hope we can get some of these guys back back uh as we get ready to turn the corner um and the play Old Miss but hats off again the Tennessee TCH coach can you speak on getting that first win here under your belt and number two and number two you mentioned boat racing would have been more memorable had you boat raced them or was a thrilling win like this make this first win more memorable to be honest um c i i i look at where we are um and this is special because it was almost it was almost 10 years to the day man when I had to sit um and and play a game at 11:30 at night and it's almost like okay hey man are are the dark clouds coming back right you know you you have to sit there and ask yourself that I mean anybody who's a realist sits there and ask okay hey you know like what type of thing is this going to be and I'm human you know I'm just a regular guy right so you know you you thought thought about it but then my wife sent me a text cuz I'm sitting in the locker room my wife sent me a text and she said listen this ain't that she goes hey be confident uh this ain't that uh you got a new team a new opportunity this isn't 2014 this is 2024 and you know what just like that man I S snap you like out of it right and what I saw from this football team tonight man was really incredible it it it was um first first Victory we we'll all remember it that's the dang sure we all we all going to remember it but just just how resilient the kids were you know what because when you have a new group like this and uh you can have one of the best quarterbacks in the world but at the end of the day man somebody's got to make some plays and that's what happened guys made some plays you know in one minute we probably had more plays made in one minute of that ball game than we made the whole the whole second half so again um be confident don't don't discount uh what opportunity brings you coach you mentioned it's a game of momentum it seemed like that safety in the second quarter really shifted momentum for the rest of the game you know what changed after sort of that moment for you guys on both sides of the ball you know to be honest I just thought it was a safety right I I didn't I I didn't think of it as anything other than two points what I was thinking about was we need to make sure that we got a a defensive stop and you know who wind up holding those guys to a field goal right so like to me maybe that was a momentum changer for us I mean like for them but for us you know we we we just have to learn you know that how to how to how to roll roll this thing over and make sure that we can flip the momentum but we didn't right it just seemed like we stalled and we became stagnant and they loaded the box and we missed some opportunities got lucky with a couple calls uh that sort of extended drives right like to me that wasn't how we wanted to play football but here's what I'll I'll say I think this much sometimes man you you don't you don't necessarily get uh the win that you want you get the win that you need and that was the win that we needed like in my opinion we needed to learn how to win tough and man that was a tough way to win one for sure we went the hard way you started off hot like you said with a boat race um comment but things went stagnant as you mentioned what what adjustments was Tech making and what where were you struggling to move the offense from there I think like for us when when we go back and look at it and we made we made some like adjustments right I thought they were loading the box and I thought we were able to I talked to you know coach reader and they made some adjustments whenever you're getting attacked on the L scrimmage like that get the ball on the perimeter I think every time we threw a running back perimeter SC it went for like 10 yards so man you could have probably you know been spent it out there all day on the perimeter with receiver screens and running back screens because if they want to load the box like that there's just not enough guys out there to bring it down and so like we saw that like happen a couple times I thought we we we missed some easy like pitch and catches right I I mean easy outs easy hitches I mean those haven't been characteristic and so um I just look at it and just say he look we got to be better so there's a lot to go back to the the the table with this week uh we've got good enough players I I'm I believe that they're going to be excited about executing but the reality of it is uh we played we played just good enough okay to to it's almost put ourselves in position to get beat okay and that's not what you want what you want to be able to do is be methodical be mechanical take your shots you know um I just didn't see us pushing down the field wanted to tonight and I thought there was some some opportunity but you got to keep your quarterback ight all right so um as we look at it there's just a lot there so we'll unpack it uh tomorrow we'll fix it let's move forward tell me about that last drive there and and kind of the the special character that is Nick Vata that was able to keep team Boys on a fourth and five there look um it's crazy because Nick was poised on Fourth and five on on Third and five he s of he s b a little bit you know I mean so like again it just shows um you know trust process you know if you ask him he probably he he probably would have wanted that third down back he didn't get it he got fourth down and and and made it work um I just think this kid is a special talent right we do have to keep him U right but I think there's other things that we can do to make sure uh that we spread it around that we get the ball in our Playmakers hands because we got way too many Playmakers not to make sure we spread the love coach you talked about how you know tonight being a close win do you think that the team can almost learn more from this being close uh battle with tech tonight than had it been the blowout that expected going into the ni game I didn't expect to blowout what I expected was you know us to come out and play better right or or play well and I thought we went out and played well initially and then uh you know became stagnant that's not want so you know I will address that um and we'll work to fix that all I can say is this right learning you with with 59 to 60 new players there's a lot of learning going on you know so I I'm going to I'm going to talk about the lessons that we can take from this ball game and then move forward because like when you got a bunch of of guys just working the jail together whether it's the offensive line whether it's our quarterback with our receivers man our Run game whether it's defensively look uh if you dwell too much on the negative okay man you you you can find yourself stunning their growth I'm I'm not going to dwell on the negative I'm going to focus on what needs to be fixed okay but I'm going to accentuate the positives and what we're going to do is get ready to go play this you guys rotated in a lot of guys in different positions tonight specifically at running back were there any that stand stood out to you tonight maybe Above the Rest or was it just kind of a room that functioned best as a as a whole tonight yeah you know I look at the running back room and I say to myself um it's it's one of the deepest that I've been around and I've been around some pretty good running back rooms it's just deep you know I I don't care who you hand it to I think they're all capable of doing something special with it and I think they've all gotten better because they've learned how to catch the ball out the backfield they've learned how to protect I mean they've got to be threedimensional in this offense you know from what we need to do so um I I just think they've done there uh previously we talked about the the last drive and how he converted on fourth down really y had success all night on fourth down from various distances what made forth down so successful for your the analytics on it help right I I think that's part of what you do when you look at some of the analytics you ask yourself hey I mean like does it make sense you know we we found ourselves in some precarious field position at times right it was like the 40 the 37 the 30 so you know like those uh like for us didn't want to didn't didn't want to give them field position uh you know with a long field goal uh to to me that really didn't make sense right um so I think we still with the analytics I had enough confidence in the things that that that I had seen in practice and I thought uh you know coach weer had some some some strong play calling uh early in this deal especially on fourth down so um I'm I'm going to trust him I'm going to trust our process of how we prepare um but the analytics I think help a lot nowadays you know like where you sit where you're at and doesn't make sense to to to go forward on forward down and continuing with that last Drive do you think that gives you a little bit of momentum going into this week preparing for Miss and do you know of anything 100% has to change to to win next week everything has to change you know I I don't I don't I don't think you leave uh you know any any stone unturned right I think man we have to be better with penalties I think we got to be better on third Downs okay both offense and defense I mean you can run down the Gambit I think there's just a lot of room for improvement so with that being said right um you're going to you're going to go into a hostile environment and those games are fun to play okay but here's the thing about like fun games and hostile environments you can't lose your composure you have to function at a high level and really what it comes down to is not making a ton of mistakes and tonight we made way too many that's okay like I said we'll turn it around we'll look at it and uh this gives us a lot of a lot of confidence I think I this game itself regardless of what other people say I know what it looked like down on the sideline I know what happened when Amari caught the ball I know what happened when Frank put it in theend I saw I saw the the look in these guys eyes that's confidence right that a lot of people can't measure it but I can coach you had your first met at Middle Tennessee today but this is also the 300th win in Floyd Stadium how does it feel to have both of those in your first game you know what I mean like that's that that's a I'm stunned by that you know to be honest I I didn't I didn't know um the 300 U program history Floyd Stadium uh that's incredible that s a lot to the people man who who came before us cuz they put it at 299 right and uh I'm just lucky enough to get 300 um it's just I don't know I I I I really don't think about it I'm just glad that we got the win so I'm thankful but thank you for bringing that up man that's just one of these bones man I have to pick Mr Owens over there he he could could get a little more energy coach you have Kelly on that play yeah what is it like to have a Dependable wide receiver like him you know we have so many Dependable wide receivers I look up right uh I mean I don't think we found hold holding enough tonight and I think that's a matchup man that we have to you know be fine right I I feel good about all our receivers I just think you know like tonight was just one of those nights you know like for us where um you know we we we didn't have the Mojo especially in the second half we just didn't have a Mojo right and so we have to work a little harder we all receivers dine tight end we all just got to work a little harder man cuz it's it's there it's there to be had right and I think we left lot of production out there on the field tonight but that's okay there's always theor with the delay with