Mocs offense a big boost
It was an excellent step in the right direction.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football offense, maligned for much of the early season due to lack of production, gained almost 400 yards in Saturday’s 63-7 win over Virginia Military Institute.
“They practiced hard all week — they really did,” UTC coach Tom Arth said after the game about the offense. “All of the work was put in on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They came out and they let it all hang out, and it was good to see. I was really proud of the way they played today.”
The Mocs entered the game in Lexington, Va., averaging 13 first downs a game. Against VMI, they had 24. They had 148 rushing yards after rushing for 150, total, in the first three games.
After converting nine third downs into first downs in the first three games, the Mocs were 12-for-15 against the Keydets.
“It felt really good, just because we feel this is how we’re supposed to perform every Saturday,” UTC running back Richardre Bagley said. “Each week we preach on offense, we’ve got to show what we’re about. We’ve got to come out with swagger, confidence, and I feel like we did that today.”
The Mocs scored on six of their first seven possessions in building a 42-7 halftime lead. That execution bled into the second half, when UTC opened with a 17-play, 76-yard drive that ate up 9 minutes, 50 seconds of game time and ended with a 6-yard touchdown pass from Nick Tiano to Bingo Morton.
“Incredible,” Tiano said of that drive. “We came in at halftime, and Coach Arth told us don’t be satisfied with where we’re at. We’ve got to play 60 minutes, play a complete game. That’s what we’re going to do, and for us to come out and do that was huge for our confidence and building our brand of football.”
It was the longest scoring drive in recent UTC history.
And the offense clicking against the Keydets came at an ideal time. This Saturday’s opponent, Western Carolina, is averaging 40-plus points per game and nearly 600 yards per contest, so even if the UTC defense can contain the Catamounts, the Mocs must be able to put some points on the board.
And now they’ve seen they can do that.
“Our team, we’re built to play with the lead,” Tiano said. “Our offense, the way we control the ball, when we get a lead we can really kill people running the ball, throwing the ball, chewing clock. So for us to come out, start fast like we’ve been preaching all week, all season, and just get that momentum going and sustain it, that was key for us, too.
“We started so fast, and for us to continue to do that all the way until the end of the game was just huge for us rolling into next week.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.