Wednesday best: Golden Eagles host team photo day
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – With a full week of camp in the books, the Tennessee Tech football put on their finest, cleaned themselves up and lined up for the team’s annual photo day in Tucker Stadium on Wednesday morning. It was a nice breather for the Golden Eagles, who have been going under a grueling schedule.
By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
Photos from Wednesday's Photo Day session
Video: Interview with Tech head coach Marcus Satterfield
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – With a full week of camp in the books, the Tennessee Tech football put on their finest, cleaned themselves up and lined up for the team's annual photo day in Tucker Stadium on Wednesday morning.
It was a nice breather for the Golden Eagles, who have been going under a grueling schedule.
"It went really well," said Tech head coach Marcus Satterfield. "It was very well organized. I think our kids are doing a great job of paying attention to details. We talked to them last night and told them to pay attention to every aspect. It was a challenge as a coaching staff and as a team to get them out there with no earrings, trimmed beards, trimmed hair, shirts tucked in, proper uniform, be there on time, don't be silly and they did all of those things. I think that's a very good sign for us as a program moving forward."
And they weren't kidding about the details. As the team lined up for the team photo, attention was paid to how every player looked, where they were positioned, what they were doing with their hands, and Satterfield was there to make sure that every bit of minutiae was accounted for.
"We've got to make this look perfect," he told his players just before the cameras were snapped by the university's Photo Services department. "This is our national championship team photo."
But it all comes down to one of the team's mottos.
"Everything counts," Satterfield said. "Our mantra is 'From shoestrings to championship rings.' Everything counts. We've really made great strides from the time we got here to fall camp so far, so it was really good to see them be mature enough to do that during picture day."
Satterfield continued, "We want to set standards to the highest point. We're not afraid to set standards to win a national championship. We're going to fight every day to win a national championship. Coach (Justin) Rascati, when he was at James Madison, they were picked to finish second to last in their conference and they went on to win the national championship. We shared that with our team – don't be afraid to set those goals. It follows the adage about shooting for the moon. If you fall short, at least you'll be among the stars. That's the mentality that we have."
It wasn't all about the team photo though.
The team split into their position groups and classifications for snapshots. Several players were filmed for profiles on "The Marcus Satterfield Show" and for TTUSports.com later on in the season.
Maleek Hall and Michael Birdsong each wore a GoPro camera during the morning's festivities, invoking several interesting and hilarious moments with the Tech players and coaches. See that video here.
But, more importantly, Satterfield took the time to take a picture with each and every member of the Golden Eagle roster.
"That's huge on a lot of fronts," Satterfield said. "It's great for the families who want to have pictures of their kids in a football uniform. The main thing is for recruiting. Those pictures are going to be in every school from Brooklyn, NY to Miami, Fla., to Chicago, Ill., to California. Those pictures of Tennessee Tech will be everywhere, and in recruiting, that's crucial for us."
Camp resumes on Thursday morning with the team's first scrimmage on Saturday night.
