UTC seniors are great examples for younger Mocs
Bingo.
“A lot of people say it with excitement,” said University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior wide receiver Bingo Morton. “Sometimes they even spell it out.” Come 1 p.m. Saturday against Mercer at Finley Stadium, Mocs football fans will hear Morton’s name blare from the loudspeakers for a final time as an active player. Redshirted as a true freshman, his five years of eligibility will come to a close, at least here in the Scenic City. His last game, as with the rest of his classmates, will be played at South Carolina on the night of Nov. 17.
But Morton and fellow senior Tavon Lawson were on hand to meet with the press during the team’s weekly media luncheon on Tuesday, discussing everything from injuries — Lawson has endured a significant one in four separate seasons — to teammates, to what they’ll cherish most about their years at UTC.
“Playing in Neyland Stadium my freshman year,” Lawson said of his most memorable moment. “I actually got to start. All your life you see teams like Tennessee playing on TV. I never thought I’d get to experience that.”
He no doubt hoped he’d never be forced to experience the physical pain he’s endured as a Moc.
“Freshman year, broken thumb,” he said. “Sophomore year, tore my hamstring. Junior year, sprained my AC joint (shoulder). Senior year, tore my MCL (knee).”
That last injury threatened to end his senior year almost pretty before it began, since the Talladega, Alabama, native’s earlier medical issues had forced him to burn his redshirt season in 2016.
“We didn’t think Tavon would be back,” said second-year UTC coach Tom Arth. “But he was determined to never lose faith. He never wanted to think he was letting other people down, though he wasn’t.”
Indeed, Lawson’s continual thoughts as he furiously rehabbed his knee were of the image he was projecting for the Mocs’ younger players.
“They said I’d be out eight to 10 weeks,” Lawson said. “I got back in five. I couldn’t let the younger guys see me down. I needed to be their biggest cheerleader.”
On the road last week at Furman — just his second game back after arthroscopic knee surgery — he became one of the Paladins’ biggest headaches in UTC’s painful 16-10 loss, making nine tackles.
“When we entered (preseason) camp, we wanted to be the best defense in the Southern Conference,” Lawson said. “I think we’re close.”
Morton often seemed close to becoming known as one of the SoCon’s best receivers. After catching one touchdown pass during his sophomore year in 2016, he erupted for four scores and 39 catches for last season’s offensively challenged Mocs.
But the emergence of wideout Bryce Nunnelly and others this season has limited his production this time around.
“It’s tough to be a senior, a guy who led us in receiving last year, and have to compete for playing time,” Arth said of Morton. “Those are not easy conversations to have with a player. And Bingo didn’t always agree with me. But I’ve been so impressed with how he’s handled it. He’s been so helpful and supportive of the guys playing more snaps than him. He’s a really good example for our younger players.”
And when he’s had his opportunities, he’s taken advantage. He scored UTC’s lone touchdown on a pass from quarterback Nick Tiano inside the final two minutes at Furman. Arth also recalled a crucial catch he made in the narrow win over VMI.
“Bingo’s shown up in some really big moments,” Arth said. “Third down in the VMI game, caught the ball away from his body. It’s hard to make that play when you haven’t been out there as much.”
It was an earlier VMI game during his redshirt sophomore year that Morton remembers most fondly, however.
“It’s all flown by pretty fast,” he said. “But I’ll probably remember that VMI game the rest of my life. That was my first touchdown catch at UTC.”
To repeat the words of Lawson, they all “walk in here as freshmen, bright-eyed, not knowing what to expect.”
Then, in four years or five, it’s over. College ends and the rest of their lives begin.
Or maybe we just get to know them a little better.
Asked Tuesday about his first name, DeVaughn Bingo Morton Jr. informed the media that “Bingo’s really my middle name. It just grew on me.”
He then added details never previously known, explaining that he actually likes to play bingo, that “every time I play I’ve got to win.” That “a lot of people think I cheat when I play.” And that “some people think my parents were playing bingo when they decided to have me.”
Come Saturday, here’s hoping that Lawson, Morton and their fellow Mocs seniors will have the same success against Mercer that Bingo always seems to have playing his namesake game.