Much the same way Davis Tull made a bee-line for the Samford offensive backfield Saturday night, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman got straight to the point.
After watching game film Huesman was even more impressed with the effort of Tull, the Mocs' All America defensive end who continually made plays in the Bulldogs backfield.
"Tull was a one-man wrecking crew," Huesman said Sunday afternoon. "He was as good as I've ever seen in all the years I've coached. His effort and motor -- he was a man among boys. The best player on the field on either side of the ball."
Tull led a very active defensive front, finishing the 38-24 whipping of Samford with a career-high four tackles for loss to go with two sacks, six total tackles, three quarterback hurries and a forced fumble.
The program's career sacks leader had relatively meager numbers for him in the previous two games, including just one tackle for loss and no sacks.
Moc defensive lineman Davis Tull (90) is in his senior year.His sacks and tackles for loss went for minus-34 yards and helped the Mocs dominate the first half. Keionta Davis, who was making his first start this season at the other defensive end spot, also had two sacks and two tackles for loss. After Samford got a field goal on its opening drive, UTC allowed just 83 rushing yards (2.1 per carry) and defensive pressure helped led to three interceptions.
"The past few games we've played predominantly running teams and we were playing from behind," Tull said. "We got up on [Samford] early, and when they're in passing situations you know you can come after them instead of having to play the run first.
"It felt good to be able to just get after them."
Tull had a third sack negated when officials waived-off an intentional grounding call against Samford quarterback Michael Eubank. From early on he was being noticeably held by Bulldogs offensive linemen trying to slow him down, but only one of those was flagged.
"He could've had six sacks if he didn't get dragged down five times," Huesman said. "I know you can't call every holding, but that's how dominant he was.
"Keionta had a really good game, too, and having two pass rushers like that makes it awfully tough."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.