University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Memories motivate Mocs' Hinton

Memories, both good and bad, can motivate, invigorate and inspire.

Three stand out from last season for University of Tennessee at Chattanooga senior wide receiver Thomas Hinton — two good, one bad — and he’s drawing on all three this summer as he prepares for his final season.

“It’s not hard to get motivated going into your last year, but it’s good to have those things to think about,” the Prentiss, Miss., resident said Monday after being put through a tough running workout at Scrappy Moore Field.

The highlight of last season, his first at UTC after attending Copiah-Lincoln (Miss.) Junior College, for both Hinton and the Mocs came on Sept. 22 at Georgia Southern.

On the second play of UTC’s possession in overtime, quarterback Antonio Miller connected with Hinton inside the 5-yard line and he lunged across the goal line for the winning touchdown. It was one of 13 receptions for Hinton last season and his only touchdown.

“That was a great game and it felt really good to make that play,” he said. “Memories don’t come much better than that.”

Hinton didn’t even have the ball in his hands in his other favorite feel-good moment, which came against Arkansas. The strong 5-foot-11, 180-pound wideout provided a key block that helped running back Bryan Fitzgerald break free for a 65-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter against the Southeastern Conference team.

“I put the (defensive back) on his back,” he said, smiling.

Fellow receiver Blue Cooper said Hinton, who has the broad, muscular shoulders of a linebacker, is the Mocs’ best blocking wideout.

“He just mashes people,” Cooper said.

The memory of a dropped pass at Elon might be providing Hinton with the most motivation. The Mocs trailed 38-21 in the third quarter and got the ball back after a Joseph Thornton interception. On third-and-7 from their 35, Miller dropped back and fired a long pass to an open Hinton, who bobbled the ball for a moment before it slipped through his fingers.

“If I could have made that catch, it might have changed the game,” he said. “You’ve got to make the most of every play when you get it.”

All the UTC players receive an evaluation at the end of spring practice. For Hinton, the primary thing he was told he needed to work on was his concentration.

“He’ll make the great catch and then he’ll drop the routine ball, and that’s been his M.O. since he’s been here,” wide receivers coach Jason McManus said. “His toughness is unbelievable; his character is unbelievable; his football knowledge is unbelievable; but it’s his consistency catching the football that he needs to work on all summer.”

Hinton said he’s putting in the work, doing everything he can to make his final season one full of good memories.

“It’s serious business from here on out,” he said, “from here to (the opener at Oklahoma), all the way to the end of the season.”