Tennessee kicker, Brent Cimaglia met with the media on Friday and it was definitely eye opening.
“It’s actually funny, i didn’t have a field to kick on when i went back home, i was basically kicking in a ditch. It was an open field and i was kicking towards a light post. Honestly my dad helped me out a lot and we’d send film off. Honestly, i think personally that time home and that time sitting in a ditch kind of brought me back to my roots and made football fun again. It’s not about where you are, it’s about doing what you love and i had fun with it everyday.”
“In Florida they have these big ditches and basically you could put a whole football field out there, but it was funny, we went to home depot and bought a little hand held grass cutter and we were cutting little squares where i could kick the ball without getting too much grass. But yea, a ditch.” Cimaglia added.
Brent was asked about his nickname the fans have given him, “Auto-Cimaglia” and he said “For me, it’s a cool name. I wanna be known for a bigger reason and purpose. It’s more about the Power T, than the name on Jersey.”
Brent has been key for Tennessee in the kicking game for a few years now and the confidence never lacks, but he’s humble in his approach.
“I tell Coach Pruitt each gameday, cross the 50 and I am good. I did hit one from 60-yards in Neyland last week.”
The leadership that he brings to the Tennessee football team can’t be overstated. Yes, he’s on special teams, but you can tell the way his teammates have spoken about him in the past, he definitely has the ear of the locker room.
The Vols are hopeful they will not have to use him much during the season, just for extra points. But, as he’s shown in the past, whenever they need that saving grace of three points, Brent is up for the challenge.
Cimaglia also discussed the team morale during this pandemic.
“The team overall, we’re all really close. For us the morale really didn’t change. We have a goal and that’s for us to get set for South Carolina and we’re going to do that each and every day. The senior class, we stepped us as leaders. We pushed everybody. So I’d say the morale never changed.”
And yes, Brent was asked about who could take on the loose tiger in Knoxville. “Without a doubt Trey Smith. Are you kidding me? If the tiger sees Trey running up, that Tiger is gone”
We will have more from today’s media session with Ty Chandler and Brandon Johnson.
Stay tuned to Fox Sports Knoxville for more coverage of Fall Camp 2020
