The back-to-back champions are feeling disrespected coming into their season-opening game at Sanford Stadium next Saturday night.
That’s right, back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference champion UT Martin was picked to finish third in the OVC this season, and 18th-year head coach Jason Simpson has taken note.
“I’m waiting for these guys to say something about being picked third, and that’s fine, we’ve been picked anywhere from first to down at the bottom,” Simpson said. “But I’ve been at this league long enough to know what kind of football team we’ll have.
“The difference is with the transfer portal, you don’t know who everybody lost and who everybody gained.”
Simpson is the sort of coach Kirby Smart respects, as he has truly had to “eat off the floor” from the start of his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Delta State.
In fact, the UT-Martin coach sounded kind of like Smart when discussing his team’s approach to the 2023 season
“The mindset everyday is that the 2021 championship had nothing to do with 2022,” Simpson said. “The 2022 championship will have no impact on what we do in 2023. It’s an ‘eat off the floor if you are hungry enough’ mentality. I talked to the guys the other day about ‘now what’? You go to meetings, now what can you do to improve? You just went to weights, now what can you do to make yourself stronger and a better player?
These kids have done a nice job of buying into the mentality that we aren’t the hunted but rather the hunters. That hungry mentality is who we are and that will not change.”
Simpson, like Smart, is a former SEC football player having started his career as a quarterback and baseball player at Mississippi State before finishing up at Southern Miss.
Simpson’s son, Ty Simpson, is a well-known SEC quarterback at Alabama who is expected to compete for the Crimson Tide’s starting job this season.
Clearly, Jason Simpson has had a great deal to do with helping to develop his son’s football success.
But Tennessee-Martin is even better known as a program that develops great coaches under Simpson’s direction.
An impressive list of former assistants includes Georgia’s million dollar defensive line coach, Tray Scott, who was with the Skyhawks in 2013 and 2014 before moving on to North Carolina (2015-2016) and ultimately Georgia.
As much as Simpson has proven himself a consistent winner at UT-Martin, he does recognize the challenge the Skyhawks will have against the two-time national champions at 6 p.m. next Saturday at Sanford Stadium.
“It will be a great experience for these guys,” Simpson said, “with individual opportunities for these guys to compare their skillsets.”
The Bulldogs, of course, have one of the most talented rosters in college football and are loaded at every position.
Here are some of the UT-Martin players who Georgia has certainly scouted closely:
• Quarterback Kinkead Dent: A former 3-star prospect who is transferring in from Ole Miss, Dent appeared in 13 games last season for the Rebels as the holder
• Defensive end Daylan Dotson: Preseason FCS All-American, 9.5 sacks, 15 QB hurries, 5 forced fumbles last season
• Offensive tackle Gavin Olson: Preseason FCS All-American, four-year starter, 82 knockdown blocks last season, two sacks allowed on 401 drop backs
• Running back Sam Franklin: 2022 OVC Freshman of the Year, averaged 8 yards per carry and rushed for 676 yards
• Tight end DJ Nelson: Had six touchdown catches in 2022 among his 21 receptions for 267 yards
• Receiver DeVonte Tanksley had 53 catches for 653 yards in 2022, including a 9-catch, 220-yard game vs. Murray State
The Skyhawks played two FBS teams last season, falling 30-7 on the road at Boise State and 65-24 in Neyland Stadium against a No. 3-ranked Tennessee team.
UT-Martin actually out-scored the Vols 17-13 in the second half after giving up 52 first-half points.
“We regrouped at halftime and challenged them to win the second half,” Simpson said. “There was times I was pleased with how competitive we were.
“Obviously we played a lot better at Boise than we did here.”