Mocs pull it out

So much for a winning season. So much for a feel-good ending to the Southern Conference slate. Or so it appeared Saturday at Finley Stadium.

Needing to beat The Citadel to secure a winning season for the first time since 2005, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team dug itself a 21-0 hole. Yet unlike so many Mocs teams in the past, this group found a way out and found a way to win.

Quarterback B.J. Coleman hit wideout Blue Cooper for a 1-yard touchdown pass with 4:36 left in the game to lift UTC to a stunning 31-28 Southern Conference win in front of an announced crowd of 9,540.

First-year Mocs coach Russ Huesman was teary-eyed during his postgame news conference and had to pause several times to collect himself.

"You know, the season's not even over yet and I've got seven or eight guys coming up and thanking me (after the game)," he said. "They're coming up thanking me, and that's kind of why I'm so emotional. They don't have to thank me. It's a great group of guys.

"That's pretty neat, a bunch of guys come up and hug you and say thank you."

The thanks was for taking a team that went 1-11 in 2008 and leading it to the program's first winning season since 6-5 in 2005. The Mocs (6-4, 4-4) will wrap up their season next week at Alabama.

The Mocs outscored the Bulldogs 28-7 in the second half thanks in large part to the play of Coleman and Cooper. Using a hurry-up passing offense, Coleman fired one completion after another and finished a career-best 39-for-61 for 356 yards, with three touchdowns and an interception.

"(Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield) really believed in me and put it on me, and for that I'm very grateful," said Coleman, who threw the ball 41 times in the second half.

Cooper finished with 14 catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns. It was his fourth 100-yard game this season and his third game with at least 13 receptions.

"We've been a second-half team all year, and we showed that character that we have in the second half today," said Cooper, who has 82 receptions this season for 817 yards.

This was the third straight game in which the Mocs found themselves in an early hole. Against Western Carolina on Oct. 31, UTC rallied from 13-0 down to win 24-20, and last Saturday at No. 8 Appalachian State, the Mocs got behind 21-0 and cut the lead to 21-20 before falling 35-20.

"We're going to have to figure out how to start better," Huesman said.

The Mocs outgained the Bulldogs 373-311, with all but 17 of those yards coming through the air. Garrett Hughes had eight catches for 72 yards, Jare Gault had seven for 70 and Chris Pitchford added six for 50, including a 23-yard touchdown.

All-America wideout Andre Roberts had 10 catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns to lead The Citadel.