Some day soon, athletic director Rick Hart hopes, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 2008 football schedule will be done, finalized and set in stone. Associate athletic director Matthew Pope and Mocs coach Rodney Allison feel the same way.
It’s hard for all of them to believe that it’s not there yet, though the 12-game slate has appeared that way several times in the past two months. One vacancy remains unfilled.
Hart noted that the late changes are “obviously frustrating, but unfortunately it’s really becoming more commonplace, not only for us but everybody. Scheduling seems to be more fluid than it’s ever been, but it’s like anything, we’ve dealt with it and when it’s all said and done we’ll have the schedule we need to have — one that’s fair but that also brings some much-needed revenue to our football program.”
The Mocs will definitely open the season at Oklahoma on Aug. 30, and two weeks later they will play at Florida State — two games that will bring the program a combined $935,000.
Also, UTC’s Southern Conference schedule is set, starting on the road Sept. 27 at Furman and finishing at home against SoCon newcomer Samford on Nov. 22. The Mocs host three-time defending Football Championship Subdivision national champion Appalachian State on Nov. 8 and also have SoCon home games against Georgia Southern and Elon.
The Mocs will host Jacksonville State for homecoming in their final nonconference game Sept. 25. That game was set pretty early in the process, Pope said, but even it was surrounded by question marks this week.
There was discussion between the two schools about moving it to Oct. 25, UTC’s open date, so Jacksonville State could schedule a “money” game against a Football Bowl Subdivision team. But that issue is now dead, Pope said.
“We’ve got a contract that says we’re playing Jacksonville state on Sept. 25,” Pope said, “and as of now that’s the plan.”
The Jacksonville State contract has signatures from both parties on it, something UTC hasn’t been able to get for its Sept. 6 opening.
The Mocs thought they had a game with NAIA school Belhaven locked up for Sept. 6 at Finley Stadium — which would potentially have given UTC a little breather between the two heavyweights — but Belhaven, which was to be paid $20,000 for the game, Hart said, never signed the contract UTC sent it and has scheduled another opponent for that week.
Nobody in the UTC athletic department was aware that Belhaven had backed out of the verbal agreement until an outside party visited Belhaven’s Web site and saw its 2008 schedule posted, which showed the Blazers playing at Concordia College in Selma, Ala.
“There was all kinds of miscommunication with that situation,” Pope said.
Allison, whose 30-plus years in college football have given him friends at schools big and small throughout the country, is leading the effort to lock in the 12th game, and Hart said he was optimistic that a deal will be in place, with contracts signed, very soon.
“I think the end result will be worth the time and energy,” Hart said. “I just wish we could have had this done in a more timely manner.”
UTC 2008 schedule
Aug. 30 at Oklahoma
Sept. 6 TBD
Sept. 13 at Florida State
Sept. 20 Jacksonville State
Sept. 27 at Furman
Oct. 4 Georgia Southern
Oct. 11 at Wofford
Oct. 18 Elon
Oct. 25 Open
Nov. 1 at Western Carolina
Nov. 8 Appalachian State
Nov. 15 at The Citadel
Nov. 22 Samford
John Frierson is in his fifth year at the Times Free Press and fifth year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole ...
