Wiedmer: UTC Mocs desperately need a win Saturday

photo UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman rushes around Jacksonville State linebacker Michael Carlisle during the Mocs' home football game against the Gamecocks on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga.
photo From the stage at Miller Plaza during the UTC pep rally Friday, Coach Russ Huesman charges the crowd to bring friends to the Mocs first home game Saturday against Jacksonville State.

Three words of advice should you feel inclined to ask University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman why he didn't replace his quarterback son Jacob at some point during last Saturday's overtime loss to Jacksonville State:

Don't do it.

"That's ridiculous," the sixth-year coach said when the subject was broached during Tuesday's media luncheon. "No one brought that up beforehand. No one brought it up afterward. No one brought it up during the first, second, third or fourth quarters."

And perhaps no one should bring it up. Anyone who's watched even a few minutes of the Mocs' two games and two losses to date knows that the preseason Southern Conference offensive player of the year has put up the frustrating numbers he has -- four interceptions in a 20-16 loss at FBS foe Central Michigan, 38 total passing yards and 11 rushing yards against JSU -- largely because he's scrambling for his life out there.

After averaging 361 offensive yards a game in 2013, UTC has totaled only 367 in its first two contests this season. That ineptness was particularly startling against Jax State, given no first downs in the opening half and a 409-111 yardage deficit at game's end.

"What's happening is, they're taking Jacob out of the game," said Huesman the coach. "They're not letting him keep the football."

But in the bigger picture, the one that focuses on whether this much-anticipated season can still end in a playoff run, what's happening is that the Mocs are running out of second chances to make a first impression on the FCS playoff committee should they fail to win the SoCon outright.

"We have to win the league outright to be 100 percent safe," said redshirt freshman offensive lineman Hunter Townson. "We saw what happened last year when it was left to the selection committee. We didn't get in. We don't want a repeat of that."

For those with short memories -- or a defense mechanism that conveniently erases that which you prefer not to remember -- the Mocs tied with Samford and Furman a year ago for the SoCon title but were kept home by a selection committee that basically labeled them "first team out."

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But with the conference weakened by the departures of traditional powers Appalachian State and Georgia Southern, Furman (12 in the Sports Network poll) and UTC (14) are currently the league's only ranked programs, which makes a second bid for the SoCon quite uncertain.

By contrast, Jax State's Ohio Valley Conference has three schools -- JSU (9), Tennessee State (22) and Eastern Illinois (25) in the Top 25.

And should such rankings continue to hold, the Mocs almost assuredly will need to go 7-1 in SoCon games or win the league outright (whatever their league mark) to reach the playoffs.

Yet because it stands 0-2 at the moment, however heartbreaking those defeats, what would seem equally important is that UTC wins Saturday evening's nonconference game at OVC member Austin Peay, which fell 63-0 to Memphis on Aug. 30, APSU's only game so far this year. Especially since the Mocs whipped the Governors 42-10 a year ago.

"We've got to get a win. We've got to feel better about ourselves," Huesman the coach said. "We've just got to win a football game, that's the bottom line."

He says the fan pressure hasn't arrived yet. No emails. No phone calls about the state of the program. His worst critic so far apparently has been wife Amy.

"I came home at 9:30 Sunday night and my wife says, 'What are you doing home?'" he said with only the barest of smiles. "I told her I'd been at the office since 4:30 in the morning. She said, 'OK, but don't be coming home at 9:30 anymore this week.' But that's a typical football coach. Sixteen-hour days."

If it's to become anything but a typical UTC football season, one filled with more lows than highs, the Mocs absolutely, positively have to win this Saturday.

"I feel like we'll bounce back," said junior defensive lineman Daniel Ring. "We won six straight last year. I feel we're still that team."

Ring's coach has even found one positive in starting 0-2.

"I probably feel better about our attitude being 0-2 than 2-0," Huesman said. "If we were 2-0 we'd probably feel like we'd arrived."

Instead, they may have arrived at this season's crossroads far sooner than anyone feared possible.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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