UTC football’s first spring games doubtful
The thought of a spring football season at the Football Championship Subdivision level has been exciting for most people across the country.
And how could it not? It’s football in the spring — a time where there’s no other football being played. It’s a great opportunity for the FCS to showcase the talent level that exists.
But with an opportunity to make things simple, the NCAA may have erred. It probably would have been best served to play a scaleddown, four or six game season with no playoffs and no champion crowned. Is one really needed?
By multiple reports, 31 of the 127 teams at college football’s third-highest level (behind Football Bowl Subdivision Power Five and FBS Group of Five) have opted out and chose not to play. That fact alone suggests that the season won’t be the same. Players have opted out, including some for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which most recently lost standout receiver Bryce Nunnelly to the transfer portal.
Nunnelly, a mechanical engineering major with a 3.81 grade-point average, is taking 20 hours this spring to graduate and will move onto the next school of his choosing.
On the UTC campus, there has been very little, if any, excitement about the spring season. Even head coach Rusty Wright has expressed a lack of desire to play on multiple occasions, although he recently decided that he needed to “change his mindset.”
There had also been very little focus on preparing for the Feb. 20 season opener against Virginia Military Institute, the first of eight spring games scheduled for the Mocs.
Consider that the Mocs don’t even have an offensive line coach currently, and haven’t exactly been busting down doors in pursuit of one. Then there was Monday’s
confirmation of something that’s been reported multiple times by the Times Free Press — that there would be no fans allowed at the VMI and Wofford games due to winterization of Finley Stadium, preventing a school that’s already cash-strapped from bringing in any revenue.
Also, the Mocs haven’t yet begun practicing in pads yet.
On Tuesday, reports surfaced that UTC’s home opener against VMI is likely to be canceled, although that has yet to be confirmed by the UTC athletic department. According to the report by WRCB, the Mocs second game, against Wofford, could potentially be canceled as well.
UTC’s statement was that there were “positive COVID tests within the program that have prevented the start of practice.”
If the first two scheduled games do wind up being canceled, the Mocs’ season opener would be Mar. 6 at the Citadel. After that is another road game on Mar. 20 at Furman. By the time UTC returns home to face Mercer on Mar. 27, Finley Stadium will be fully functioning, therefore allowing fans to come.
The situation also speaks to the reasons why many feel the totality of this season is a bad idea, where the reward for being the best team in the country means less time for your team to rest up for the following season because the reward for being one of the two best teams could mean playing 12 spring games followed by at least 11 more in the fall.