The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team is earning some respect this offseason. The Mocs, coming off their second straight 6-5 season, are ranked No. 16 in the recently released Athlon Sports preseason Top 25 for Football Championship Subdivision teams.
According to the UTC sports information office, this is the first time the Mocs have been in a preseason poll since 1992. They spent two weeks ranked in the Sports Network's poll last season, their first ranking since 1997.
"It's always good to get respect, but that's really not our goal this year," Mocs senior safety Jordan Tippit said Thursday. "We want to be No. 1 and make it to the national championship and win a [Southern Conference] championship."
Georgia Southern is ranked No. 1 in the Athlon poll, Appalachian State is No. 5 and Wofford is No. 8. Nonconference opponents Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky are ranked ninth and 22nd.
The Mocs open against Nebraska, and then four of their first five FCS games are against teams ranked in the Athlon poll.
Last week, UTC senior Joel Bradford from McCallie was included in the Sports Network's list of the Top 10 FCS receivers. Also listed was another Chattanooga native, Tennessee Tech's Tim Benford from Red Bank.