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Eddie George's Tennessee State Tigers football team starts their season with a game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Tigers will be the first HBCU team Notre Dame has ever played in the history of the program. So, with that comes expectations. The Tennessee State Tigers are confident in their chances at a competitive game, per statements received by The Tennessean.
Senior offensive lineman Romello Tarver was emphatically confident when he said, “It will be a competitive game.”
“People expect us just to go in there and lay over and be a cakewalk,” he said. “It won't be that.”
“They put helmets and cleats on just like we do. We've been working all summer,” linebacker James Green quipped. “We haven't been waking up and running hills just to go to Notre Dame and lay down.”
While the Tennessee State football team is fired up for the game, Notre Dame football players and fans aren't as enthusiastic. Fighting Irish supporters hold no ill will towards TSU but would rather face what they deem to be a tougher opponent.
“I absolutely hate this… You can’t sit there and schedule this and go, ‘Well, it’s historic for this (reason).’ I get all that. I don’t care about that,” Notre Dame football alumnus Brady Quinn said last year on Fox Sports Radio's 2 Pros & A Cup Of Joe. “This isn’t about equity and all that stuff or trying to say ‘Hey, we’re helping out an HBCU school.' It’s not about that. It’s about trying to win a national championship.”
It's true that Tennesse State will be getting a $1 million payout for the game. They also will be seen by a national audience on NBC. However, Eddie George believes that the pressure isn't on them.
“Listen, obviously, the pressure is not on us. Notre Dame is a strong brand. We relish the opportunity to show the entire country who we are, what we do, how we operate, and the future vision for Tennessee State.”
