Eddie George started with a loss.
The Tennessee Titans great made his college coaching debut Sunday at the Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic in Canton, Ohio, where Tennessee State University, led by George, fell 16-10 to Grambling University.
It was the first meeting since 2002 between the HBCU programs and George’s first game as a coach of any kind at any level.
“I’m not putting pressure on whether I won or lost,” George said following the game. “Even if we’d found a way to win, we didn’t execute with excellence. We left a lot of plays out there.”
TSU, which used three different quarterbacks, outgained Grambling 230-184 and had an edge of more than six minutes in time of possession behind running back Devon Starling, who rushed for 88 yards and his team’s only touchdown on 18 carries. The Tigers took an early lead with a first-quarter field goal and led again 10-7 after Starling’s 3-yard touchdown run to cap the opening possession of the second half.
George’s team was penalized 18 times for 150 yards, however, compared to Grambling’s four violations for 35 yards.
“This is a new staff, a new offensive system,” George said. “A lot of things are fairly new for us. In order to get to where we’ve got to go, we’ve got to go through it. And this is a part of the process.
“There’s chaos before order. And this is chaos – 18 penalties for 150 yards, that’s damn sure chaos. That’s something we want to solve.”
George was named Tennessee State’s coach in April. The move added to a highly successful post-playing career in which he has been an actor, entrepreneur and educator, among other things.
His assistant coaches include former NFL head coach Hue Jackson (offensive coordinator), Brandon Fisher (defensive coordinator), the son former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, and Joe Bowden (linebackers coach), a Titans teammate of George’s when the franchise played in Super Bowl XXXIV.
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