Rodney Allison has thought long and hard the past few weeks about whether or not to give his son, Sloan, a redshirt freshman, a shot as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s starting quarterback.
Allison said Wednesday during his weekly media luncheon that it is something he is seriously considering for Saturday’s game at The Citadel. Jare Gault has started eight games this season and Tony Pastore has started two, while Sloan has come off the bench and played in nine, mostly in the fourth quarter when the Mocs (1-9, 0-6) have been way behind.
“I’ve been thinking hard about it for a couple of weeks, and what we’ve done hasn’t worked,” he said. “I’ve protected him somewhat — and a lot of people have said some things concerning me playing him — but probably I’ve not played him because he’s my son more so than playing him because he is.
“If I think (playing Sloan) gives this team the best chance to win this last game or two, I’m going to do it.”
| Here are the passing stats for the Mocs this season: | |||||||
| PASSING | GP | Cmp-Att-Int | Pct | Yards | TD | Long | Avg/G |
| Jare Gault | 10 | 83-163-5 | 50.9 | 716 | 5 | 76 | 71.6 |
| Sloan Allison | 9 | 27-74-7 | 36.5 | 277 | 0 | 31 | 30.8 |
| Tony Pastore | 5 | 27-59-4 | 45.8 | 456 | 4 | 62 | 91.2 |
| Blue Cooper | 8 | 1/1/2000 | 100 | 32 | 0 | 32 | 4 |
| Total | 10 | 138-297-16 | 46.5 | 1481 | 9 | 76 | 148.1 |
The subject of criticism also came up at the news conference. Allison has dealt with his fair share during his six seasons as the losses have mounted and spoke at length about dealing with criticism and angry fans:
“It’s all part of it. There’s a certain amount of criticism you’re going to get — even if you win sometimes you get criticized. That goes with the territory, that goes with this job — it’s a public, fan-based job, and there’s passion in the fans, you hope there’s passion and you want passion. I said a few years ago, I’d love to have 20,000 people up in those stands yelling at me instead of 5 or 6,000. That’s what you ultimately want, but there’s a line can be crossed when it becomes personal.
“For example, they criticize me, not publicly but e-mails and stuff, and bad, now, about my character and they’re going to boycott if I put Sloan in the game. And I hear on the radio the other day that somebody here in town called (Tennessee coach) Phil Fulmer a fat idiot. I mean, what is that? I mean that makes no sense to me, that professionally someone could call Phillip Fulmer a fat idiot — that goes beyond what I think is fair; I think it’s wrong.”
For more Mocs coverage, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
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Rodney Allison News Conference
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 ...
What can we expect from Rodney. He has built a middle of the road division two team at best during his head coaching tenure at UTC. It is understandable that he can't see that Jare Gault is the best athlete that he has at quarterback. His judgement of football talent is not exactly stellar. As for character, I have it from a very good source that Rodney did not say who the starting quarterback was going to be until after the kickoff of last weeks beat down by Appy State. That's real nice of you Rodney, keep the kids in suspense. Nice integrity! Enjoy the long bus ride over to Charleston to get your ass handed to you. Go ahead and start your son against the first teamers for a change. Better get the paramedics ready. The Cadets from the Citadel will show no mercy. We know you don't care about winning these last two games. It's all about you, right? After all, YOU were a Heisman candidate back in the 70's. Maybe you can relive that thrill through your son. Of course it would be nice if your son were ready to be a starting college quarterback. Who cares, we are the laughing stock of the SOCON at 1 and 9. We all wish we could push a fast forward button to get you out of town quicker. Can't wait to see your rear headlights heading down I-24!
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