Arth’s ‘first real adversity’ now an ‘opportunity’
Fifth-year seniors for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program had been part of 36 wins before this season. They’d been to three consecutive playoff appearances and ascended to No. 3 in the country in consecutive years.
They know what “Chattanooga football” has been.
This season has not been it. Tom Arth, who had 40 wins in four seasons as the head coach at John Carroll before taking over the Mocs in December, knows that, too. Sitting in his office Monday afternoon after a long day of meetings and interviews, he expressed how frustrating the team’s 1-4 start has been.
“It’s not why I came to Chattanooga — not what I expected it to be — but at the same time it’s the first real adversity I’ve faced as a coach,” the former NFL quarterback said. “I’ve had tough moments but no real adversity, so for me, I look at this as an opportunity, because you can go to any person, any team, any business, and you can’t find an ultra-successful person or organization that hasn’t gone through failure and come out of it on top. It just doesn’t happen.
“There’s only one way to get there: You’ve got to be able to come through that stuff, and that’s the difference between the exceptional performers, the exceptional leaders and the average. Those guys that don’t quite make it out, they give up, lose faith, lose belief, but those guys that come out are the special ones and the ones that achieve the most success.
“You don’t want to be in this situation, but it’s inspired me greatly. It’s very personal to me to do everything I can to help the team improve and get everything
I can out of each player on our roster.”
That process will start this afternoon, when practice preparation for Saturday’s homecoming matchup against Furman (2-3, 1-1) begins. Players seemed upbeat Monday, roaming around the halls of the fourth floor, going to meetings. Coaches stressed that everything is all right, with the feeling that things ultimately will be.
The tenor was similar after Saturday’s 45-7 loss at home to Western Carolina, which moved into the Football Championship Subdivision Top 25 on Monday. Each of the Mocs’ losses have come to teams that have at some point this season been ranked, but that doesn’t make anything better for those fifthyear seniors, who have come to expect a high level of success.
Senior linebacker Tae Davis: “This is not Chattanooga football, and we know it.”
Added running back Darrell Bridges, a homegrown graduate transfer from Presbyterian: “We’ve just got to come together
and play Chattanooga football.”
Lucas Webb, the 2015 preseason All-American and threetime first-team All-Southern Conference member, said that this week’s practices “will tell us who we are as a team.”
“This is kind of new grounds,” Webb said. “It’s new territory, new adversity, but one thing we can’t do is we can’t be divided. We have to come together, have to keep going and have the mindset of what can I do to get better.”
It’s a sentiment that the head coach echoes, especially after a meeting with the team’s leadership council Monday.
“I know they have the right mindset,” Arth said. “We’re in this situation we’re in, which was not expected and not anybody’s hope to be in, but the reality is we’re in it. Now the leaders, this is where we show up, where we define ourselves and truly show what we have inside of us. If you’ve got the right stuff inside of you, this is going to inspire you like you’ve never been inspired before, motivate you like you’ve never been motivated before.
“I see that in some of those guys, but it’s going to have to start with me and start with the leaders on the team to permeate that feeling, that confidence going forward.”
Quarterbacks update
Arth said Monday that quarterbacks Alejandro Bennifield and Nick Tiano remain questionable as far as their availability for the Furman game.
Bennifield suffered a concussion late in the first quarter against the Catamounts. Taken to the hospital and released before the game ended, he is “still not great,” the coach said.
Tiano was still in some pain after a trip to the doctor Monday afternoon, but there are “no breaks.”
“Dro, we’re most concerned about him and his health,” Arth said. “With Nick everything looks good as it is, but we’re going to work on his range of motion. His mobility will be important the next couple of days.”
Tiano has thrown for 873 yards and six touchdowns while running for 121 yards. Bennifield had 29 yards passing against the Catamounts.
If neither can play Saturday, focus will turn to redshirt freshman Dominic Caldwell — who threw a touchdown pass against WCU— and true freshman Cole Copeland, who had been expected to redshirt.
“We’ll re-evaluate both of those guys,” Arth said of Bennifield and Tiano. “If they’re ready to go, great. If not, we’ll certainly have to get Cole and Dominic more work.”