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Chattanooga: UTC hopes to stop the run in Saturday's Southern Conference opener at Furman

By: John Frierson
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Bobby Lamb

Furman's Tersoo Uhaa scores a touchdown despite the efforts of Delaware defender Julian James (51) during the Paladins' 23-21 win last Saturday. Furman will host UTC in the Mocs' first Southern Conference game of the season on Saturday. (AP Photo/The Greenvilel News, George Gardner)

Furman wants to run the ball better. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wants to do a better job stopping the run. The team that gets its wish Saturday could come out on top when they meet in Greenville, S.C., in the Southern Conference opener for both teams.

“We’re going to go into the game being Furman,” said Furman coach Bobby Lamb, who is 6-0 all-time against the Mocs. “We’re going to try to run the ball first and work our play-action passes off of our run and if we’re successful doing that then we’ll have a successful day. If not, we better find some other ways to move the ball.”

The 16th-ranked Paladins (3-1) are fourth in the conference in rushing yards per game at 163.8, but they have been up and down with their ground attack this season. Two weeks ago at Colgate, they ran the ball 48 times for 304 yards. Last week, against a much tougher opponent in then-No. 6 Delaware, Furman was held to 83 yards on 32 carries.

Furman’s ground game is led by sophomore Mike Brown, a preseason second-team All-SoCon pick, who is averaging 76.5 yards per game. At 5-foot-8, 176 pounds, Brown uses his quickness to get through holes or break to the outside. He’s also a weapon in the passing game, turning short passes into big gains as he did against Delaware when he had five catches for 91 yards.

“I know our tailback, Mike Brown, is a small guy — he is guy that we call a space player. We got him out in space (against Delaware) and he had nine broken tackles in the game, so we got to get him in space because that’s what he’s best at,” Lamb said. “But you got to be able to run the ball between the tackles, and we’re going to go back and concentrate hard on that this week.

“To make a defense play the entire field is what you’re trying to do, and last week we were able to go sideline to sideline with Delaware, however we didn’t run it inside effectively.

Backup Tersoo Uhaa, a freshman, is the same height as Brown, but 22 pounds heavier, which has allowed him to be effective in short-yardage situations. He scored a pair of touchdowns on 1-yard runs in the 23-21 win over Delaware.

If the Mocs (1-3) are going to slow down Brown and Uhaa, who has four of Furman’s nine rushing touchdowns, they’re going to have to play a lot better than they did last Saturday. In the 31-3 loss to Jacksonville State, UTC’s defense gave up 322 yards rushing on 48 carries.

Senior defensive end Neil Brown said the defense can’t allow Furman to run wild this week, not if the Mocs are going to end a 13-game losing streak to the Paladins.

“The big thing about (Furman) is that we’re just going to have to be gap sound, and that’s really what it comes to with any defense trying to stop the run,” said Brown, who is tied for fourth on the team with 20 tackles. “If you get out of your gap, it opens up a hole and Furman’s backs are good enough to take advantage of it, so we have to eliminate that.”

Mocs defensive line coach Fred Tate said it’s imperative that UTC’s defense be more physical than they were a week ago.

“We weren’t a very physical defense against Jacksonville State, and we’ve got to be physical this week to have a chance against what Furman does,” Tate said. “They do a lot and they’re efficient at what they do, so we got to be physical up front and take care of the line of scrimmage.”

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