When they talk about wins at Howard, the conversation almost always turns to basketball.
Football had been forced to use a different measuring stick for success - from the number of players consistently showing up for practice to offensive series with first downs and without a turnover to defensive efforts that didn't give up first downs, much less touchdowns.
There was a monkey on the collective back of the Hustlin' Tigers. After three total wins in the previous three seasons the monkey took on bodybuilder proportions in a winless 2014, Mark Teague's first year as the coach.
"That wasn't a monkey on my back. It was a gorilla," Teague said this week about the losing streak. "I always wanted to be a head coach, and it's really great to get that first one (win). More important, I felt really happy for the kids."
They cast aside a streak that had grown to 17 games last Friday via a 26-20 victory over Lancaster Christian.
"Yes, we got over a huge hump," quarterback Vincent Bowling said. "Last week's game, I felt like a lot of people stepped up. That message Coach Teague has been trying to get across seemed to sink in."
That gist of that message - there are only so many ways to say it - was if they kept working, something good would happen.
"It was, 'Guys, you've got to keep fighting and it will happen,'" Teague said. "As a coach I was telling kids on Friday that I needed them to show up on Monday. As a coach you see the improvement week to week, and now there is proof."
Mack Williams was a difference-maker last week. Dismissed from the team about this time last year for what he termed insubordination, Williams made his peace with Teague just weeks after the 2014 season ended. Yet a blood-pressure issue kept him sidelined till last week.
"He was like a bull in a china shop," Teague said after watching Williams run for 236 yards.
"I learned last year that you have to be humble and respectful to get where you want to go. My career could've been ended," Williams said. "You have to do things the way Coach wants. But, yeah, things are different this week. Guys are more eager to be on the practice field. The whole team is pumped."
So the Tigers have come a long way from when the just-arrived Teague went out for spring practice and found himself with seven players. He has taught coaches to coach, and then as a staff they began teaching players how to play, beginning with the fundamentals. Offseason work is no longer foreign to them, and they are comprehending the essence of video study.
"The kids understand individual drills and what to look for when watching film, and they understand down and distance," Teague said.
"We did some good things last week, but there are always things that can be fixed and done better," Bowling said.
Teague is at the center of a slow yet steady transformation.
"In some lives he's a father figure, but he isn't here just for football. He teaches life's lessons too," Bowling added.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.