Preseason Rankings Fuel Behind TU's 6-2 Start

Head coach Philip Montgomery has guided the Golden Hurricane to a 6-2 record, undefeated at home.

His team will try to continue that streak Saturday against East Carolina who’s just 1-3 in conference.

But TU isn't looking past anybody.

"We're not good enough, as a football team, to take anybody lightly,” said Montgomery. “You start looking at East Carolina, there's a lot of close games in there."

The Hurricane denied the possibility of a "trap game," despite the emotional win over Memphis and traveling to face Navy next week.

Instead, they keep the focus inward.

"I think we respect every team in the conference, because if you look at the rest of our schedule, we lost to most of these teams we played last year," said defensive tackle Jesse Brubaker.

Montgomery added, "I like the way our football team is getting better each and every week."

Fueling that improvement is a little feeling of disrespect. The Hurricane didn't like where they were ranked preseason, and they haven't forgotten it.

"There's still a lot of motivation from that,” Montgomery stated. “We know that we're in search of respect. We know we're in search of respect within our own conference and within our own state."

"What we've done this year is just focus on what we can control and not what other teams do,” said offensive tackle Blake Belcher. “So far, I think we've done a pretty good job of that."