KNOXVILLE – Daniel McCullers has no problem admitting he’ll be nervous before his first Tennessee football game.
When the Volunteers’ 6-foot-7, 360-pound nose tackle takes the Georgia Dome field Friday night in Atlanta against North Carolina State, a small group of supporters among the big crowd will incite the butterflies.
“All my family from Raleigh [N.C.] and coaches from my high school and junior college are coming down to see me play,” McCullers said after Tennessee’s practice Monday morning. “I’ve got to play hard for them and for my team. I’m going to do good for them.
“I want to have a big game. Who doesn’t want to have a big game? Just go out there and dominate like I know I can.”
The oversized McCullers and Tennessee’s transitioning defense will face a big-conference Wolfpack team that has experience at quarterback and along the offensive line. The line returns 112 career starts on its two-deep depth chart, and 6-foot-6 fifth-year senior Mike Glennon threw for 3,054 yards and 31 touchdowns in 2011.