Wright using past lessons learned to help guide future
It’s okay for University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Rusty Wright to admit that, in hindsight, mistakes have been made along the way.
It’s easy to forget that, despite being the head coach since the beginning of 2019, Wright just coached his 23rd game last Saturday and earned his 12th win, a 21-16 decision over previously 10th-ranked and undefeated East Tennessee State.
The Mocs came into the season with arguably the best offensive line in the Southern Conference and the best defense, and a pair of running backs in senior Tyrell Price and sophomore Ailym Ford that have been named to All-Southern Conference teams during their careers. And with a myriad of experience on both sides of the ball, aided by all players receiving an additional season of eligibility due to COVID-19, Wright admitted recently that he took some things for granted coming into the season.
“I wish I could go back and start over from last May,” Wright said Saturday. “It’s not even playing last spring, but there’s so many things I would do from May to August that would be different.”
Wright never admitted it publicity until after the fact, but he had bad vibes about the team’s preparation for the season opener against Austin Peay — a game the Mocs looked unprepared for and lost 30-20 to the Governors.
“If you’re around this game long enough, you get a feel for how things are and you get a feel for how people are, and I think I’ve got a pretty good pulse of how our kids are supposed to act and I didn’t feel those things,” Wright said. “I was hoping since I had an older group, they would work themselves out — being an older guy — and they’re young people and they don’t know it yet.
“That’s my job and that’s where I failed. I know that and so I’ve grown in the last four, five months. I know that I can’t take anything for granted anymore and that’s why I’ve got to continue to grow and develop as a head coach, no matter what happens the rest of the year and I’ve got to get this group to understand where we can go with this football program, and not go backwards.”
Wright’s attitude early in the season was reflective in the Mocs’ play. After last week’s disappointing overtime loss against Virginia Military Institute, junior defensive end Devonnsha Maxwell — who responded with a school-record five sacks against ETSU — basically echoed Wright’s feelings.
But the two times the Mocs have had their backs against the wall — after the Austin Peay and VMI losses, games the Mocs had chances to win — they’ve responded, with a shutout of North Alabama and the ETSU win, which put the team right back in the thick of a conference race where five teams are tied for first in the loss column. The team is in a big stretch, where three of the next four are on the road, starting with a game at Samford (3-3, 2-2) this week.
The Mocs have shown that when they’ve put forth solid, consistent efforts, they’re tough to beat. Wright has never preached perfection, only consistency, and while the team has lacked that in some crucial stretches of games this year, the season is only half over. There’s still plenty of time to be just that over the final five contests of the regular season.
“We see that when we go out there, and the offense is going full-go, and the defense is going full-go and we’re a full team, we see the results from that,” Price said. “Hopefully we just want to stick to that and continue with that and see how it goes.”