UTC to show ‘vanilla’ offense in Blue-gold game

Marquis Green burst loose for a 60-yard touchdown in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s second scrimmage of spring practice last week. He’s hoping for another long run today during the Mocs’ Blue and Gold game at Finley Stadium.

“When you’re going against our defense, you’re always trying to get out there and make something big happen,” Green said Wednesday.

Whether any of the Mocs’ running backs produce big plays remains to be seen, but they will get plenty of opportunities. Today’s annual end-of-spring game will wrap up UTC’s 15 practices in intentionally unspectacular fashion, coach Russ Huesman said.

“We’re going to really water down the offense, big-time, because we’re not going to show anything,” Huesman said Monday. “There’s going to be no moving parts, and we’re going to hand the ball off and throw the ball. Defensively, we’re going to line up and play defense.”

UTC opens its season on Aug. 29 against UT-Martin. The Mocs have a new offensive coordinator in Jeff Durden and some new twists to their spread attack, and Huesman doesn’t want what UTC is doing to get out before the Skyhawks visit Finley. That’s why the two spring scrimmages were closed to the public, though Mocs Club members were allowed to attend.

“We’re not going to do anything we’re doing out here [at practice],” he said. “You can call anybody you want out there in the free world and tell them to come watch. This will be as vanilla as a spring game’s ever going to be.”

Not exactly a compelling call for Mocs fans to go to the stadium.

“I’m going to let our marketing department handle excitement,” Huesman said. “Right now my job is to win a football game.”

Just because it’s vanilla doesn’t mean players won’t be competing and coaches won’t be evaluating. It will be the last spring game for rising senior Gunner Miller, who said UTC’s No. 1 defense will try for stops and turnovers as it always does.

“I think as far as bragging rights, you can’t really have any because we’re not having a [No. 1] defense versus the [No. 1] offense,” Miller said, “so as long as your unit plays well, you’re going to have some bragging rights over the unit you played against. In that sense, we want to play well so we can brag all summer.”