‘Wild environment’ awaits Mocs tonight
As the only member of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team who has played in a game at LSU’s Tiger Stadium, fullback Chris Jones remembers “tearing up” when he stepped on the field for the first time.
The graduate transfer from Arkansas started on the kickoff team in the Razorbacks’ 2015 game against the Tigers, and he had a tackle in his team’s 31-14 win. It was a victory the Arkansas native never forgot, helped by the “Battle of the Golden Boot” rivalry trophy that was awarded to his team after the game.
“It was really a wow moment,” Jones said UTC’s practice Thursday. “It’s a wild environment, especially at nighttime. The craziest place I’ve ever been.”
His UTC teammates will experience that feeling tonight when the Football Championship Subdivision 13th-ranked Mocs (0-1) face LSU, the 12th-ranked team in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The game will be televised on the SEC Network at 7:30, and there will be a watch party at Pin Strikes for the game.
Jones is one of two Mocs players who have been on a visiting team in Baton Rouge. UTC starting quarterback Nick Tiano was on the trip when Mississippi State fell to the Tigers 23-20 last season, but he didn’t play.
“It’s an incredible environment — one of the best in the country,” Tiano said. “It was my first road game, and it was like watching a movie. It’s what everybody dreams about, playing in stadiums like that.”
Tiano said that on third downs the Mocs offensive players are “not going to be able to hear anything,” so the team has been working LSU running back Derrius Guice celebrates a touchdown at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. UTC visits the 12th-ranked Tigers tonight for a game that will be shown on the SEC Network.
“It was my first road game, and it was like watching a movie. It’s what everybody dreams about, playing in stadiums like that.”
– UTC STARTING QUARTERBACK NICK TIANO
ON EXPERIENCING LSU’S TIGER STADIUM
on ways to communicate in the midst of chaos.
Most of the remaining Mocs from last season have experience playing in FBS environments. Last season’s team faced Alabama, and Florida State and Tennessee have been on prior schedules. The Tiger Stadium “Death Valley” atmosphere is a raucous environment not unlike the others, although the Alabama game last season was the only one played at night.
Since 2000, the Tigers are 79-10 at home at night.
Tonight will be the first FBS challenge for new UTC head coach Tom Arth, who came from the Division III ranks. He admitted this week that he was excited but not too familiar with the notion, with his closest comparison playing in Foxborough, Mass. — home of the New England Patriots — during his time with the Indianapolis Colts.
But Arth has been preaching all week for his team to treat this like any other game, because it’s the “next game on the schedule.”
“I think they know it’s going to be a hostile environment,” Arth said of the Mocs. “Everyone outside of our freshmen have had the opportunity to be in that type of atmosphere. It’s a little bit of a new environment for me, but when we get between the white lines it’s just us going out there to play football and everything else can fade away in the background.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.