Bobby Wilder sent a message to Football Championship Subdivision residents a year ago: This isn't the same Tennessee Tech team that languished in an FCS wasteland for more than a decade between conference titles.
This past weekend, Wilder delivered the message in Roadrunner-to-Wile E. Coyote anvil-on-the-head form to visiting Chattanooga and its head coach, Rusty Wright.
Wilder had taken offense last week when Wright derided Tennessee Tech's need to move up kickoff the midday because the Golden Eagles are amidst a multi-million dollar renovation project to Tucker Stadium that temporarily has the venue without lights.
The Golden Eagles turned out the lights on Chattanooga in a dominant, 45-17 beatdown of a Mocs team that entered the contest on the fringes of the national rankings.
"Their head coach, Rusty Wright, made a comment Monday in his press conference about our facilities and having to move the game to noontime and not having lights and he jokingly said, 'Welcome to big-time college football,'" said Wilder, who built from ground up the Old Dominion program and signed on for the Tech rebuild some 20 months ago. "So, (Saturday) was about as much a statement of 'Welcome to big-time college football to Rusty Wright.'
"What we did today, as a football team, that was a dominating performance, right from the start. Jumping up 21-3 early, finishing the game like we did; the way we played, just relentless effort in all three phases.
"When you have a game like this where we're ranked nationally, they're receiving votes, then you make a statement like that with a 45-17 win. That's big for our program, big for Tennessee Tech and big for the OVC."
Chattanooga and Tennessee Tech, in Cookeville, Tennessee, are separated by a mere 100 miles; they have been playing their intermittent rivalry for 87 years and the Mocs had a commanding 30-10 series edge as this game approached.
The Golden Eagles, No. 16 in the latest AFCA FCS Top 25, No. 19 in the FCS Nation Top 25, downed Chattanooga for the first time since 2004; it was a game that ended about as quickly as it began with Tech up 21-3 after the first quarter.
"The fact that they had minus-12 yards rushing in the first half, we were physical at the line of scrimmage, our front-seven, linebackers and defensive line, were extremely physical at the line of scrimmage," Wilder said. "We tackled well in the back-end and really forced them to be one-dimensional in a game where we were able to get tremendous pressure on their quarterback.
"There was one point where we had run the ball 24 times and passed it 26. That's what we want to be, we want to be an offense that can establish the run at the line of scrimmage. The offensive line was really good in the run-game."
Tech now has won seven-straight games dating to last season, when it had a breakthrough 7-5 mark and shared a conference title. The Golden Eagles host Davidson this week.
"We got a team that loves to play football, they really around each other, they're supportive for each other," Wilder said. "They knew the impact of this game and Chattanooga and the fact that they were receiving votes in the top 25. Everybody was ready to play. There was tremendous focus on continuing to be an effort football team. What we're trying to establish is a team that plays every play of the game, whether it's defense, offense, special teams with tremendous effort.
"You saw the same effort the first play as you saw the end of the game when we had our backups in trying to stop them from scoring a touchdown. They're out there against their top offense and we're playing our 2s and our 3s. Just tremendous effort on the field."
Chattanooga saw it firsthand.