As the fifth of nine kids in his family, the firstborn son and the first child to go to college, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga linebacker Amanuel Dickson isn’t one to let any opportunity pass by.
So when the chance arose for Dickson to graduate from Greeneville High School early and enroll at UTC in spring 2024 — and with it, the opportunity to learn from an experienced group of linebackers — he pounced on it. It’s that experience he gained, that knowledge that has led him to being in line to start for the Mocs in their 2025 season, which kicks off Aug. 30 at Memphis.
“I have four older sisters, but I feel like my sisters look up to me because I’m the first to go to college out of all of them, and then they have daughters themselves,” Dickson said. “I want to be a good influence on my nieces, and I’m about to have a nephew, and for my little brothers. … All of them have dreams, aspirations of being a college athlete, and they’ve seen it a bunch in our family, but they’ve never seen it like their older brother, the first one to do it out of the actual group that we have.
“I just look at this as a blessing to be able to come out and put on for them, put on for the city and the last name.”
Dickson’s maturity has helped him be ready for this opportunity to potentially start alongside fellow linebacker Zion Rutledge, a junior. It probably would have been another season before Dickson got the chance to start on defense for UTC, but then Alex Mitchell — a former prep star for Murfreesboro’s Riverdale who made a team-high 101 tackles in this third season with the Mocs last fall — transferred back home to finish his collegiate career at Middle Tennessee State University.
Mitchell wasn’t the only big loss on defense, though. At linebacker alone, UTC graduated Kameron Brown and Kobe Joseph — both key contributors, with Joseph a starter — and there were losses up front and in the secondary as well. It doesn’t mean this group of Mocs won’t be as talented; it just means they’re going to have a grow up a bit faster than perhaps expected.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC linebacker Amanuel Dickson (8) tries to get an angle on Nathaniel Eberly-Rodriguez as he carries the ball after a catch during a July 31 practice at Scrappy Moore Field.
Yet the flip side is that Dickson is receiving another early opportunity when it comes to college football. Although he contributed mostly on special teams while making eight tackles as a freshman, he appeared in all 12 games last season as the Mocs went 7-5 overall and 5-3 in Southern Conference play, falling just short of what would have been their second straight appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
“You just have to take what you saw from the guys last year,” Dickson said. “All the experience they had, you saw them constantly going into the film room when no one else was there. You’d see them go into the training room, and how they prepared for our games on a weekly basis and just their mindset and the way that they’re looking at things. It’s not like they’re just doing things just to do it; they’re doing things because they know how to do it and why they’re supposed to do it.”
Dickson, who’s 5-foot-10, has done his part: He has gone from 188 pounds when he first arrived on campus 20 months ago to a listed 210 pounds, which is the first thing the coaching staff points out when they talk about him.
“He just has to continue to grow and be a good linebacker for us,” UTC seventh-year head coach Rusty Wright said. “He’s a long ways away from where he was last fall at this time. He’s just got to keep progressing. He’s plenty talented enough, but getting his understanding of the defense and playing it more and doing it, that’s going to be huge for him.
“But he’s got all the tools to be a good one for sure.”
It’s that direct coaching from Wright and defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Mike Yeager that sold Dickson on UTC and reminded him of that same sort of relationship he has with his father Manuel.
“He just always instilled hard work, and he always had a conditional love type of thing, that tough love,” Dickson said. “I feel like that’s exactly how it comes out here in the coaching world. They’re going to love you to death off the field, but when it’s time to get after it, it’s time to get after it.
“There’s no time for a pity party, no pat on the butt, ‘This is OK.’ You’ve got to know what you’re supposed to do, and I just feel like he did a good job of preparing me for the college life and preparing me to be a man, because nothing’s just ever going to be given to you. He always made an emphasis that you’re going to have to work for everything that you want, and I feel like he did a great job of helping me get to this point that I’m at right now.”
Contact Gene Henley at [email protected].
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