It's no secret that the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program has had its struggles in the home stretch of the past two seasons.
Well, welcome to the home stretch, only a bit earlier this year.
By the time the Mocs (5-2, 4-1 Southern Conference) finally reach their open date on Nov. 11, their fate will likely be sealed as far as their inclusion into — or exclusion from — the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, as UTC's only regular-season game remaining will be at Alabama on Nov. 18.
That puts an importance on the next three games, starting with Saturday's 1 p.m. matchup with rival East Tennessee State (2-4, 1-2) at Finley Stadium. After that is a road trip to Virginia Military Institute (3-3, 2-1) before returning home to finish the FCS portion of the regular season against Furman (5-1, 3-0), which is currently ranked among the top five in both national polls.
The Mocs, ranked 20th by FCS coaches and 21st by media, are aware of their recent history as they try to earn their first postseason berth since reaching the second round of the playoffs in 2016. They went 1-3 down the stretch a season ago and dropped two of their final three in 2021, missing out in both cases when a bit more success late was likely all that was needed to earn an extra game.
It's a narrative the team is undoubtedly tired of hearing, and the only way to change that is to take care of business in the next three games.
"This bunch of guys, they're all in it for the same goal," offensive lineman Dave Monnot III said. "We all want to win, we all want to succeed, we all want to do great."
It's why fifth-year head coach Rusty Wright and his staff have adopted a "day-to-day" approach, assigning a value to each practice before focusing on the next game.
"Each day at practice, we just focus on doing it the best we can, and then tomorrow, and then on," defensive tackle Marlon Taylor said. "Then we're going to play the game and not focus on the game after the game we're playing, or the game two weeks from now. We're just focusing on controlling what's controllable and winning."
Since the FCS playoff field was expanded from 16 to 24 teams in 2013, 19 SoCon teams have won six or more conference games. Only two of those — 2013 UTC and 2021 Mercer — were left out of the playoffs. In Mercer's case, the Bears finished 7-3 overall but fell below the threshold of seven Division I wins (the seventh win was against NAIA program Point University), while in UTC's case, the Mocs finished in a three-way tie with Furman and Samford atop the SoCon but were the odd team out.
The SoCon was also dealing with a perception problem at that point, with two of the league's biggest brand-name programs — Appalachian State and Georgia Southern — leaving after the season (along with Elon).
If the Mocs can take care of business in at least two of their next three games, it stands to reason they'll be included when the FCS bracket is reveal. That of course isn't the goal — 9-2 would of course be nice, especially since that would equal a win over the Crimson Tide — but it is a goal.
And it would equal a team that played well down the home stretch.
"We've sold it one day at a time," Wright said. "We've had some pretty good days of practice. They've been pretty good about focusing on the here and now. I'm not saying they've always been the smartest mentally or anything like that, but they've been pretty good focusing on the here and now and the, 'I'm trying to figure out a way to get better,' and we'll continue to do that.
"We'll be OK, I like where they are, and I'll be honest with you, I don't care what happens with us the rest of the way, I love being around this group, so it is what it is."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.