The elements weren't in favor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team Monday. The team dealt with a steady downpour of rain, but that didn't affect the practice schedule.
There was still work to be done.
The Mocs spent a vast majority of the two-hour practice working on situational drills. Down-and-distance was a focus of the last hour, as well as a lot of time spent with the defense trying to make late-game stops in two- and four-minute drills.
"You want to give them as many situations as you can," UTC coach Russ Huesman said. "Obviously next fall, you're going to have to work on them again, but this is the time of year you've got to do these things. We've done these drills before, but this is the first time we've really looked at
Quarterback Jacob Huesman enjoyed the rain a lot. During a few of the drills, he took off on a scramble, making sure that he slid when the opportunity presented itself -- gaining about 8-10 yards on the slide itself.
The rain-soaked practice was unlike most games the Mocs have played. Matter of fact, to the quarterback's recollection, UTC hasn't played in a rain- or snow-affected game during his career.
"It shouldn't change a whole lot of what we're trying to do," the younger Huesman said. "Working with a certain number of footballs at practice, it gets tough toward the end because the balls get wet, but during a game they would be dry, so that shouldn't change a lot."
He agreed with his father's assessment about the situational drills that were a focus of Monday's practice.
"If you have a third-and-5 situation and the receiver runs a 4-yard route, that's not going to get it done," he said. "You've got to know where the sticks are, how much time is on the play clock and things like that. It's a lot of attention to detail, but you have to have that football awareness and football smarts."
Free safety Lucas Webb said it's the situations and the chess match between offense and defense that drew him to the sport of football in the first place.
"You have to be prepared," he said. "You can't guess. You have to be prepared, make sure you're in the right place and know your responsibilites."
Monday's practice was the ninth of the spring season. The Mocs will practice again Wednesday, then have a scrimmage Friday before another practice Saturday afternoon. There's a chance the Finley Stadium turf won't be ready for Friday's scrimmage, and the staff is currently looking for alternate sites, which include Baylor, Chattanooga Christian and McCallie -- all of which have turf fields.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.