October 19, 2010

Golden Eagles look to make it three-in-a-row Saturday in Nashville

With victories against Austin Peay and Eastern Illinois the past two weekends, Tennessee Tech heads to Nashville Saturday looking to win three-in-a-row when the Golden Eagles face Tennessee State at 6 p.m. in LP Field.

Click here to view/download complete TTU vs. TSU game notes (PDF)

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- With victories against Austin Peay and Eastern Illinois the past two weekends, Tennessee Tech heads to Nashville looking to win three-in-a-row when the Golden Eagles face Tennessee State Saturday at 6 p.m. at LP Field.

The Golden Eagles (3-4/2-2 OVC) are also hoping to stay in contention for the Sgt. York Trophy where Tech has a 1-1 record.

Tennnesee State, meanwhile, enters the game on the heels of back-to-back road losses at the top two teams in the Ohio Valley Conference. The Tigers (3-4/0-3 OVC) dropped a two-point contest at Southeast Missouri two weeks ago and last week suffered a 24-0 shutout at Jacksonville State.

TSU owns a five-game advantage over the Golden Eagles in the all-time series, 14-9, but Tech claimed a 20-13 victory in Cookeville a year ago to clinch the Sgt. York Trophy.

Tech's last win in Nashville came during the 2002 season when coach Mike Hennigan's squad escaped with a 20-14 victory. After that, the Tigers won three straight before Tech's triumph last season. Included in those three Tiger wins were wins in the other two visits to LP Field. TSU won 30-20 in 2006 over interim-coach Doug Malone, and posted a 41-14 victory in 2008 over coach Watson Brown's squad.

While this year's game will be Brown's second journey to LP Field, the contest will be the debut in the series for first-year Tiger coach Rod Reed.

Tech hopes to generate a defense similar to what they showed last week in a 34-20 win over Eastern Illinois. Marcus Edwards and Caleb Mitchell led the charge as Tech tallied eight quarterback sacks and held EIU to 39 rushing yards. The pair was named OVC and National Defensive Players of the Week.

On offense, senior Jocques Crawford leads Tech in rushing after a career-best 127 yards and two touchdowns last week helped net him OVC Newcomer of the Week honors. Dontey Gay is also having a solid year in the Tech backfield, and another ball carrier -- freshman Cody Forbes (pictured above) -- could be emerging as a potential weapon.

Kickoff is at 6 p.m.

Records in 2010:

Tennessee Tech is 3-4 overall / 2-2 Ohio Valley Conference
Tennessee State is 0-6 overall / 0-4 Ohio Valley Conference
Series Record: TSU leads the series, 14-9
First Meeting: 1984
Last Meeting: Tech 20, TSU 13 (Oct. 31, 2009)
Current Streak: Tech - one game
Tech Radio:
Golden Eagle Sports Network (Roger Ealey, Buddy Pearson and Brandon Goodwin)
[also Free Teamline (Call 1-800-846-4675 - team code 0654)]
Television: OVC TV Game of the Week on Wazoo Network
Live Stats: www.TSUtigers.com
Last Game: Tech defeated Eastern Illinois, 34-20; TSU lost to Jacksonville State, 24-0
Web Stream: OVCsports.TV
Web sites:
Tennessee Tech - www.TTUsports.com
Tennessee State - www.tsutigers.com