Golden Eagles impress at Purple/Gold Spring Game
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – To figure out where the Tennessee Tech football team is in April as the team held its annual Purple vs. Gold Spring Game, one just has to go back to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoff selection show. As the team saw the rest of the field announced, including three Big South-Ohio Valley Conference football teams, it stuck in the craw. The Golden Eagles, who defeated playoff picks UT Martin and Tennessee State to win the Sergeant York Trophy, were left out. It became a mission. “Our theme this year coming out of missing the playoffs by one game is ‘Run It Back,’” Wilder said. “You’ll see it out here on shirts and that’s our theme because of the bitter taste we had. Keeping this team together will add more value to the roster in April and May through the portal. I’m really excited about our high school recruiting here in-state and put us in good position heading into camp.”
By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – To figure out where the Tennessee Tech football team is in April as the team held its annual Purple vs. Gold Spring Game, one just has to go back to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision Playoff selection show.
As the team saw the rest of the field announced, including three Big South-Ohio Valley Conference football teams, it stuck in the craw. The Golden Eagles, who defeated playoff picks UT Martin and Tennessee State to win the Sergeant York Trophy, were left out.
It became a mission.
"Our theme this year coming out of missing the playoffs by one game is 'Run It Back,'" Wilder said. "You'll see it out here on shirts and that's our theme because of the bitter taste we had. Keeping this team together will add more value to the roster in April and May through the portal. I'm really excited about our high school recruiting here in-state and put us in good position heading into camp."
Typically, the Tech Spring Game had been a situational scrimmage, but with a large group returning to the field, it made for a great opportunity to pit teammate vs. teammate and get work done in front of the gathered fans and alumni. Officially, the Gold team beat the Purple 15-13 as Dom LeBlanc hit a field goal as time expired, but there were a lot of solid performances on both teams.
"I'm really excited that we were able to get two teams out here," Wilder said. "Last year, we had 64 players total with seven offensive linemen. Today we had 95 players with 14 offensive linemen. The players were excited because they wanted to play a Purple vs. Gold game and get the experience of having the officials, the clock.
"Speaking of the effort, I'm really excited with how fast we're playing right now. Clearly our defense is playing with a lot of speed. I'm very excited about our new faces on offense and all of the different positions. Overall, I just love that we came out with great effort and enthusiasm."
With a large group of returnees and talented newcomers, it also adds one crucial element to the equation.
"The thing I like the most is the depth we have created," Wilder said. "The ability for us to return almost our entire team from last year, especially in the age of the transfer portal, it's such a challenge. I'm so proud with (University President) Dr. (Phil) Oldham's leadership, Wayne Cravens' support on building the Golden Eagle Collective that have allowed us to be competitive with the players we have selected and their return.
"We have 14 players that joined the team in January and it was really exciting to see all of them perform out here today. We've added a lot of depth that we didn't have last year and there's general competition across the board at every position."
By numbers, it's a fair assessment that the defense had a great day, but it was not a knock at all on the offensive groups as they put together great plays.
"When it comes to offense vs. defense, I'm Switzerland," Wilder joked. "Seeing it go back and forth with the offense having success and the defense having success, it makes me excited about what's ahead. I'm thrilled with all facets of the game."
Both sides were quiet in their initial drives, but the Purple squad struck first as Eastern Washington transfer quarterback Kekoa Visperas, Aidan Littles, Brian Courtney and Quintell Quinn moved the Golden Eagle offense down the field. Starting at the Gold 45, it took just five plays to get first-and-goal. Littles picked up four yards on the first play, then Quinn wrapped up the series as he reached the ball over the line for the game's first touchdown. Dom LeBlanc's PAT was good to make it 7-0.
The Gold team put together a sustained drive, going 45 yards on 11 plays. After missing his first pass, Dylan Laible connected on three straight passes to Luke Shields to get to the Purple 24. Torin Baker, Travis Carlucci and Tre Holloway got the Gold closer with Baker getting them to the Purple 5. Laible's first pass to the end zone was broken up by Monty Hunt, but his second try to Maury Sullivan found pay dirt as he hauled in a five-yard touchdown catch. Gavin Wilson's PAT was good, knotting the score at 7.
Two plays later, Myles Parker brought down Purple quarterback Coby Walton in the end zone for a safety to put Gold on top 9-7.
The Purple squad put together a long series of its own, starting at its own 5-yard line with three minutes remaining in the first half. Visperas had five completions on the drive with Obie Sanni, D'Arious Reed, Courtney, Noah Robinson and D.J. Linkins hauling in passes. Quinn and Littles brought the Purple offense to the Gold 9, but the defense held on the first two plays and kept a completion on third-down to Courtney to just the Gold 3. Stopped there, LeBlanc kicked a 20-yard field to put Purple back on top with 23 seconds remaining in the half.
LeBlanc put the other team on the scoreboard as time expired in the first half, kicking a 37-yard field goal, splitting the uprights to send the game into its intermission with Gold up 12-10.
The Gold offense saw its first drive stalled by a pair of sacks, but the Gold defense ended the Purple offense's next drive as Tim Coutras went airborne to pick off the pass, bringing it back to the Purple 30.
"It was really good to see Tim make that play," Wilder said. "It just shows the type of player he is."
A short loss and two pass incompletions made it fourth down at the Purple 32. With the wind blowing into the goal, they opted to give LeBlanc a shot at a 49-yard field goal, but the kick fell just short leaving the score at the 12-10 margin as it held through three quarters.
"(Special Teams Coordinator) Frank (Wilson) wanted Dom to have that opportunity," Wilder said. "As you and I know, there's good wind on the plateau and it's like every game, so it's a good advantage for us to get to practice in it."
The final two scores of the contest came down to the final 64 seconds of the spring scrimmage. With the Purple team starting with just over four minutes remaining, the offense moved down the field to the Gold 11 with just over a minute left. Two incompletions led to a 28-yard field goal for Wilson with 1:04 left.
With the Gold team starting from the Purple 25, two plays pushed the Gold unit back to the 27. With a timeout called with four seconds left, LeBlanc led the field goal unit back on the field, hitting a 44-yarder as time expired in the exhibition.
"I put them in a lot of different situations today," Wilder said. "We ended the game with two field goals and we need that and give them the experience and the organization. Dom kicked that last one a long way and I'm excited to have that happen.
"I like the way they handled the end-of-half and end-of-game situations by having clock awareness and down-and-distance awareness on both sides of the ball. These are situational pieces that we can improve on. We were 0-2 last year in one-possession games and if we win either one of those, we're a playoff team. We're all aware of it and the players are learning the situations. That's going to allow us to think faster."
With a few sessions remaining in the spring practice slate, which runs through April 26, there's still a lot to work on.
"We still have to put in our goal-line offense and defense," Wilder said. "We still have a lot of situations to go. We've made a huge emphasis to practice in the red zone. If you're going to be a championship team, you have to be able to score the ball in the red zone and force field goals if you're on defense."
Season tickets will be on sale soon through the Tennessee Tech ticket office.
The 2025 season opens August 30 against Cumberland for the first of seven games at Tucker Stadium this season.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
