UTC Blog: Evaluations still almost impossible

By John Frierson

Staff Writer

So, I’m looking at the statistics Tuesday morning for both the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Jacksonville State, the Mocs’ homecoming opponent Saturday, and it doesn’t take long to dawn on me that this is basically a waste of time.

Having played Oklahoma, Florida State and NAIA Cumberland, the only thing you can really say based on the Mocs’ stats is that they haven’t run the ball very well against anyone — Erroll Wynn and Shaun Kermah have combined for 228 yards.

The Mocs’ 19 penalties after three games are nearly halfway to last season’s total of 41, but that stat is also influenced by the opponents since UTC’s offensive linemen were a little jumpy against Oklahoma and Florida State.

The rest of the numbers, though, deserve an asterisk because of who UTC has played.

The same thing can’t be said about Jacksonville State, which opened the season with a loss at Georgia Tech before routing Alabama A&M the following week. The Gamecocks gained 258 yards and 15 first downs in the 41-14 loss to Tech, so they’ve proven they can move the ball consistently in both of their games. The Mocs have only proven it in one — against a vastly inferior opponent.

And all of this makes Saturday’s game very, very interesting because while we might have an idea of how good Jacksonville State is, the Mocs are still, for the most part, a mystery.

For more Mocs coverage, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.