Mocs more physical as season’s end nears
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Darrell Bridges said the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team is “angry.”
“This team is hungry for a win,” the senior running back said after the Mocs’ 24-21 double-overtime loss Saturday at eighth-ranked Wofford. “We want to come out and display what we should have been displaying all year.”
This year has been almost a polar opposite from the Mocs’ 2016 season. Last year, aided by a comparatively easy September schedule, UTC started 6-0 but lost four of its final seven games. This season — Tom Arth’s first as head coach — started off 0-3, became 1-6 and now stands at 2-8.
Seven of the Mocs’ losses this season have occurred against teams that have spent at least one week ranked nationally, with five (Jacksonville State, Western Carolina, Furman, Samford and Wofford) currently residing in one of the Football Championship Subdivision Top 25 polls and two others (LSU of the Football Bowl Subdivision and The Citadel) receiving votes in a national poll. But while the Mocs’ schedule hasn’t been easy this year, expectations around
the program have not changed and won’t anytime soon.
And in their past three games, the turnaround UTC players and coaches have talked about for a while finally started to occur.
The offensive line is creating both time for quarterback Cole Copeland to pass and holes for the running game. Receivers are making plays and not going down after first contact. In consecutive weeks, the defense held Samford and Wofford’s offenses — ranked in the top five nationally in passing and rushing, respectively —
to subpar performances by their standards.
“Discipline,” Mocs defensive tackle Derek Mahaffey said when asked what the change stemmed from. “Discipline issues hurt us so early. If we had flipped the roles and taken care of this early, this team would have been better weeks ago … but it’s something to build on. We’re frustrated at how we should have done this early, and we are playing angry. You can see it on the O-line, they’re finishing blocks — Cole Strange, I see him driving guys 50 yards.
“Everybody has the identity of being more physical, and it’s showing.”
Mocs linebacker Tae Davis said the team hasn’t lost the belief it is “a top program” despite the record, which has led to the prideful finish to the season and three consecutive solid performances against quality opponents. The next step will be continuing to play harder and also playing smarter, because penalties in key situations killed potential touchdown drives at Wofford.
“We’re growing, there’s no doubt about it,” Arth said. “We are, but for us to be a great football team, we’ve got to stop hurting ourselves, we’ve got to stop making critical mistakes in critical situations. That’s kind of been the story of it.
“We can’t stop ourselves with penalties. It makes it tough.”
The Mocs are off this Saturday and will close their season against Southern Conference rival East Tennessee State on Nov. 18 at Finley Stadium. Kickoff is set for 2 p.m.
New commitment
The Mocs gained another commitment for the 2018 signing class when Maryville running back Isaiah Cobb gave a nonbinding pledge to the program on Saturday.
The 6-foot, 205-pound senior — the nephew of Green Bay Packers receiver Randall Cobb — has missed two games this season because of injury, but he has 841 yards on 105 carries and 100 yards on 13 receptions.
“He’s a really good teammate and a really good kid,” Maryville coach Derek Hunt said. “He works hard in the weight room — he looks like Hercules — and is extremely unselfish.
“I’m excited for UTC and Isaiah both. They’re getting a really good one.”
Cobb joins Dalton offensive lineman Dylan Cole, Boyd-Buchanan outside linebacker Kohl Henke, Cartersville receiver T.J. Horton, Hewitt-Trussville (Ala.) tight end Logan Pitts and Bradley Central receiver Lameric Tucker as players committed for next season.
In addition, a seventh player, described by sources as a “hometown commitment” of a “legacy Moc” that will add a “lot of muscle to the front seven” committed to the program recently, but the player has not announced his commitment yet.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.