Mocs prep for balanced Buccaneers
Things are a little more normal for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga defense this week.
After battling one offense that relies almost exclusively on the run and another that leans heavily on the pass during their past three games, the Mocs (4-0, 2-0 Southern Conference) will have an opportunity to face a more traditional scheme when they visit East Tennessee State University (3-1, 2-0) for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday in Johnson City.
The Mocs — who are ranked 20th in the Stats FCS poll and 24th by Football Championship Subdivision coaches — can expect much more balance from the Buccaneers than they saw Sept. 8 at The Citadel, which has run on 86 percent of its offensive plays this season, or this past Saturday against Samford, which has thrown on 66 percent of its offensive plays.
The Citadel’s SoCon-leading 184 rushing attempts this season are 38 more than the next-closest league team. Samford’s passing attack, led by 2017 All-America quarterback Devlin Hodges, ranks second behind Virginia Military Institute among SoCon teams in passes attempted this year, with Samford having thrown the ball 208 times and VMI 236.
(Interestingly, the Mocs have the most balanced run-to-pass ratio in the league, with 120 running plays and 119 passing plays.)
UTC fared well against those niche offenses. Samford threw on 64 of its 89 plays from
scrimmage against the Mocs but totaled 437 yards of offense, or less than 5 yards per play. The Citadel didn’t fare much better, needing 70 rushes to gain 290 yards on the ground, which is less than its season average of 4.4 yards per carry.
ETSU, which runs a pro-style offense, tips its offensive balance only slightly in favor of the ground game, running on 53 percent of its plays.
“It’s a relief to go against a slower-tempo team,” UTC senior defensive lineman Isaiah Mack said. “In a way, it helps us focus more on our technique. Against a faster-paced offense, you don’t get to focus as much on what you have to do; you go off of muscle memory. Against a slow pace, you can sit there, take the whole offense, see the whole field and just play.”
It changes a lot from the coaching perspective as well. The Mocs like to employ a lot of different defensive sets, but most of that goes out the window against triple-option or pass-happy spread offenses.
“You now get back to being detail-specific and focus on the details of football,” defensive coordinator Matt Feeney said. “ETSU’s offensive staff is very, very good, and they do a great job of scheming up a lot of different things with their offense and do a lot of difficult things that challenge us defensively.”
Said UTC coach Tom Arth: “ETSU is going to be in a number of different personnel groupings. We’ll have all our packages ready and have a game plan for each of them. I think that’s exciting, and I think the players are excited for that as well. We’re just going to line up and play football.”
Trotter up for honor
UTC senior running back Alex Trotter is one of 179 semifinalists for the William V. Campbell Trophy, which recognizes an individual as the best football scholar-athlete in the nation.
Trotter is a former All-SoCon academic team honoree who has been on the dean’s list throughout his time at UTC. The McCallie School graduate, who is studying mechanical engineering, has a 3.30 GPA. He has made the SoCon honor roll each year and was a nominee for the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team prior to this season.
He has 29 yards on 10 carries this season and 318 rushing yards in 32 college games.
The National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame will announce 12 to 14 finalists on Oct. 31, and each will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship as a member of the 60th NFF national scholar-athlete class. The finalists will travel to New York City for the awards dinner Dec. 4, and one member of the class will be declared as winner of the 29th William V. Campbell Trophy and have his postgraduate scholarship increased to $25,000.
Contact Gene Henley at ghen ley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.