It hardly seems possible, but the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team's season will be over around 3:30 p.m. EST on Saturday. It could be a long afternoon against No. 2 Alabama, but many of the coaches and players remarked this week on just how fast the past 12 weeks have gone by.
"I think with the success that we've had and how into it the coaches have been, I think that's made the season that much more fun and as a result it's just flown by," quarterback B.J. Coleman said.
Here in the final installment of the primer, I'm going to do something different than the usual 10 things to think about heading into the weekend. This will be a mixed bag of everything from which UTC players have a shot at all-conference honors, whether coach Russ Huesman will be named Southern Conference coach of the year to what to look for against the Crimson Tide.
SoCon honors
Senior wideout Blue Cooper and senior defensive end Josh Beard are locks — or should be — to receive some type of SoCon honors. Others in the mix are senior linebacker Joseph Thornton, freshman defensive end Josh Williams, sophomore safety Jordan Tippit, junior cornerback Buster Skrine and senior kicker Craig Camay.
Cooper, Beard and Camay probably have the best shot at first-team honors, with Beard also in the hunt for defensive player of the year. Meanwhile, Williams has a decent chance at being named freshman of the year.
Cooper is second in the conference in both receptions (82) and receiving yards (817). Elon All-American Terrell Hudgins (100 catches, 1,322 yards, 14 TDs) is a lock for the first team, so it will probably be between Cooper and The Citadel's Andre Roberts (72 catches, 711 yards) for the other first-team spot.
Hudgins, Cooper and Roberts are among the nominees for offensive player of the year, which will probably go to either Hudgins or Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards.
Beard leads the nation with 12 sacks and the next-highest total in the SoCon heading into Saturday's games is 7 1/2 by Elon defensive end Andre Campbell, who leads the SoCon in tackles for loss with 13 1/2.
The top defensive player award will likely be between Beard, Campbell, Appalachian State linebacker D.J. Smith (100 tackles, 11 tackles for loss) and Western Carolina linebacker Adrain McLeod, who leads the SoCon with 126 tackles.
Coach of the year
In his first season at the helm, Huesman led the Mocs to six wins and a 4-4 record in SoCon play. The Mocs were winless in the league last season, so it has been quite a turnaround.
Had Elon beaten Appalachian State last week to clinch at least a share of the SoCon regular-season title and the league's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, Phoenix coach Pete Lembo might have been the favorite to be named coach of the year.
Now, Huesman is probably the leading candidate, and he might get some consideration nationally, as well.
Today's game against Alabama will feature the two leading vote getters in the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year race voted on by the fans.
As of Friday afternoon, Tide coach Nick Saban had a 15,000-vote lead in the bowl subdivision category and Huesman had close to a 5,000-vote lead in the FCS division.
Fan voting runs through Dec. 6 (go to coachoftheyear.com) and after that there are several more steps before the coach of the year in each division is named on Jan. 6.
The finale
Let's be honest, UTC has virtually no chance of winning this game. It's an exceptional mismatch, just as it would be if Alabama was playing any FCS team.
Sure, Appalachian State beating Michigan seemed to make anything possible, but that ASU team was better than this UTC squad and this Alabama team is way, way better than Michigan was in 2007.
In fact, Alabama might be the best team a UTC squad has ever faced. The same was said about Oklahoma last season, but the Tide are better than those Sooners.
Just getting a first down against Alabama's first and second units is going to be very, very difficult. The Mocs' best chance to make the score somewhat respectable will probably be in the fourth quarter against the Tide's least experienced reserves.
As always, my prediction will be in Saturday's paper, and like always it's just a somewhat educated guess. My hunch is that the final score will be a little closer than UTC's 57-2 loss at Oklahoma last season.
The Sooners wanted to open with a bang, while Alabama has nothing to prove at this point. I suspect all the Tide want to do is keep their starters sharp in the first half and get through the game healthy before facing rival Auburn next week, followed by the matchup with Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game.
For more Mocs coverage, see tomorrow's Times Free Press. You can also follow John Frierson's coverage of the Mocs on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeat.
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 ...
The Mocs have always played a tough schedule. I played under the legendary Coach A.C.(Scrappy) Moore in the late 1950's. Two of the teams we played that year were; Auburn, with All America Red Phillips,and they were #1 in the Country at time we played them,and U.T.with Bill Majors at Tailback,and of course some very hardhitting Linebackers.If nothing else I have good memories of those games.Although it has been many years since I suited up & played with "The Moc's",I am proud to say that I was once a Chattanooga Moc. GO MOCS !
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