Cumberland added a new opening match of the season to the NCAA Division I FCS Abverse Tennessee Tech on August 30 to launch the 2025 season.
It will be the 15th meeting recorded between the two programs and the first since 2013, when the Golden Eagles won a 63-7 victory in Cookeville. Tennessee Tech holds a record of 7-6-1 on Cumberland with 12 meetings dating from the 1950s. Since the restart of the CU football program in 1990, Cumberland and Tennessee Tech met in 2007 and ’13. The latter match saw 12,381 fans present at the Tucker Stadium to start the season. These two games were played on Thursday, an opening evening at home typical for technology and many university football teams, but this year’s match will be played on Saturday afternoon.
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“This is an exciting opportunity for our program to compete with Tennessee Tech,” said Cumberland coach Tim Mathis. “To face an opponent of the OVC FCS will be a difficult challenge for our team, but it is an excellent opportunity for our young men to show their talent. We need all our Phoenix fans to support us. It will be an excellent game for university football fans at the Middle Tennessee.”
Cumberland has just released a solid 2024 campaign, finishing with a 7-3 file, including a 3-3 brand at the game of the mid-South conference. The season of the seven victories has been the best of the program since 2017. Under the direction of the seventh year coach Mathis, who was appointed coach of the mid-south conference of the year, the Phoenix climbed up to 22 years in the national ranking and was classified or received votes in four different surveys, their first appearance at the top 25 since 2018.
The Phoenix offensive was a key factor in their success last season, with an average of 32.1 points per game while displaying 400.5 yards in total per game. Their dominant ground play ranked fourth in the NAIA with 253.7 yards on the ground per match, supplemented by 1,468 passing yards and 44 affected in total marked throughout the season.
Cumberland’s defense only granted 18.3 points per game, the 18th Best of Naia, while holding opponents at 283.4 Total Offense yards per match. Phoenix secondary has held teams at only 151.7 offensive yards. Cumberland’s defense excelled in the third and fourth stops below, ranking in the top 10 at the national level in the two categories.
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The Tennessee Tech also had a 2024 out of competition season, equaling the total of the seven winners of Cumberland and claiming a part of the Big South-Ovc Association championship. The Golden Eagles have made a sequence of five consecutive victories for the first time since 1999 and obtained the Sergeant York trophy with victories on the state of Tennessee and Ut-Martin. Their seven victories season has only marked the 17th campaign of this type of program history and the first since 2011.
The kick -off is scheduled at 1:30 p.m. at Tucker Stadium in Cookeville. More details, including ticket information, will be announced on a later date.
