CHANCE TO IMPRESS
Mocs vs. Mercer might be an FCS top-10 showdown
As he grew up, McClendon Curtis had a figurative frontrow seat to witness the ascension of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program from Southern Conference doormat to league power. When the Chattanooga native and former Central High School standout offensive lineman arrived on campus as a UTC signee in 2017, though, Russ Huesman had departed for Richmond after eight seasons leading the Mocs and was replaced by Tom Arth. What followed were a number of lean years, marked by frustrating losses and struggles to get back to the sort of national relevance the program enjoyed from 2013-16.
Could the Mocs be back to that? The jury is still out. But this week, the Mocs have a game that matters nationally.
They’ve had such opportunities before with current coach Rusty Wright, who’s in his fourth season leading his alma mater, but things just haven’t worked out. Wright was an assistant the last time the Mocs played a game matching two teams in the top 10 of the Football Championship Subdivision rankings, with UTC falling 22-14 at The Citadel during the 2016 season.
For the first time since the 2015 opener, the Mocs (5-1, 3-0 SoCon) will likely host another top-10 opponent when Mercer (6-1, 4-0) comes to Finley Stadium for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff Saturday. The latest FCS polls will be released Monday, but the Bears were ranked 11th by coaches and 12th in the Stats Perform Top 25 last week, while UTC was ninth and 10th, and both teams are coming off wins
The Bears are making their first trip to Chattanooga since March 2021, when the Mocs benched their starters and played backups and freshmen in a 35-28 loss, which was UTC’s final game before opting out of the remainder of a SoCon season delayed from the previous fall due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Mercer also defeated UTC 10-6 last November in Macon, Georgia. That was a pivotal conference game for the Mocs,
who also lost their regular-season finale the following week at home against The Citadel as they failed to deliver on their status as SoCon title favorites and missed the postseason for the fifth season in row.
Wright, having been a part of that fouryear stretch under Huesman that included three SoCon championships and three playoff appearances, has an idea of what taking the next step looks like.
“I want games to matter. I want them to be relevant,” Wright said after Saturday’s 41-13 home win over Virginia Military Institute. “I want them to have those feelings of being in those things and understanding what you have to do to go win those things with that group and figure it out. We haven’t done it yet with that group, but once you do, it gets things going a little better.”
The most recent time the Mocs hosted a fellow top-10 opponent, they were ranked eighth and lost 23-20 to No. 7 Jacksonville State. The Mocs most recently defeated a top-10 team last season, when they outlasted No. 10 East Tennessee State 16-13 in a midOctober matchup at Finley Stadium.
So, yeah, this Saturday matters. It matters because this isn’t an opportunity this program gets that often. And it matters because Wright and the Mocs, who after hosting Mercer will play three of their final four regular-season contests on the road, want games like this to be the standard — not the exception.
“Being from here, playing in these kinds of games and having this national opportunity to be recognized, you just want to keep it going,” Curtis said. “When I first got here, it was here, but we didn’t keep it that long. I just feel like this group, we keep playing and playing. I feel like we don’t really talk about or look at the national rankings or recognition.
“I just feel like for this group, we have to keep playing the way we’ve been playing, improve on the little things that we need to and continue to play better.”