Chattanooga: Hart looks for UTC football gains

There is no magic number for Rodney Allison this season, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic director Rick Hart said last week.

The UTC football coach, in the final year of his contract, has to win some games and be competitive in the Southern Conference, Hart said Wednesday. But he wouldn’t put a number on how many wins it will take for Allison to get a new deal and continue to try to rebuild the struggling program, which has had just two winning seasons since 1992.

In his five seasons at UTC, Allison has a record of 16-40. The Mocs went 6-5 in 2005, his third season, earning Allison a one-year contract extension. But they have won a combined five games since then, going 2-9 in 2007.

“We’ve shown some signs of turning the corner, competitively, but at some point we’ve got to translate that into a greater number of wins,” Hart said. “Now what that number is ... we’ll see how it goes, we’ll see how our health is and we’ll evaluate it as the season goes along.

“We’ve just got to do better in that area (winning), but I’m not going to put a number on it.”

Winning games this season won’t come easy. The Mocs have a very demanding schedule that includes a brutal opening eight-week stretch, from Aug. 30 to Oct. 18.

The Mocs open their season at Oklahoma, likely a top 10 team, before hosting NAIA Cumberland University in week 2. Then it’s on to Florida State before Jacksonville State returns to Finley Stadium the following week. The Mocs begin SoCon play on Sept. 27 at Furman, then host Georgia Southern, followed by a trip to Wofford and a home game against Elon.

From an evaluation standpoint, this will basically be a nine-game season since the Mocs will likely struggle against the big bowl subdivision powers and they should have little difficulty against Cumberland in the second game. So from the Jacksonville State game on Sept. 20 to the season finale at home against SoCon newcomer Samford on Nov. 22, Allison essentially has nine games in 10 weeks to earn a new contract.

Allison said he and Hart have had numerous conversations about the progress that needs to be made and about what are realistic expectations for the program.

“If I didn’t think I could be the coach here for several more years, I would have pursued other opportunities (in the offseason),” Allison said. “We have an understanding about what the expectations are, and the bottom line is, I want to be here. ... The expectations are reasonable and obtainable.”

At this point a year ago, there were plenty of questions about whether or not Allison would still be at UTC if he didn’t have a big turnaround in 2007. The Mocs were frequently competitive last season — pulling off the overtime upset at Georgia Southern, staying close with Arkansas and Appalachian State for three quarters and losing to Western Kentucky, Elon and Furman by 10 points or less — but could never get over the hump in the tight games.

As speculation about Allison’s future grew late in the season, Hart took action two days before the finale at Appalachian State, announcing that Allison would be allowed to coach the final year of his contract.

To go a new one, the Mocs will likely need to win at least five or six games. For the players, Allison’s situation adds a little extra pressure and motivation to excel, said junior wide receiver Blue Cooper, but it’s not like the Mocs were lacking in those areas.

“I’m not worried about him losing his job because I know he can easily go out and get another one ... but I don’t want to see him go,” Cooper said. “As players, we’re already putting pressure on ourselves to go out and play better than we did last year, to finish those games that we had a chance to win in the fourth quarter.

“We’re well aware of (Allison’s) situation, but we try not to think about it too much. We just want to start winning.”