Chattanooga Mocs defense plays better in scrimmage

Moc's running back Shaqualm McCoy (2) breaks through the first line of defense but has to deal with Oscar Prado (13) on Friday, April 10, 2015, as the Chattanooga football players work in the second scrimmage of the spring Friday on the field at Chattanooga Christian School.
Moc's running back Shaqualm McCoy (2) breaks through the first line of defense but has to deal with Oscar Prado (13) on Friday, April 10, 2015, as the Chattanooga football players work in the second scrimmage of the spring Friday on the field at Chattanooga Christian School.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team's defense lost the battle against the offense at practice Wednesday. The offense erupted for a number of big plays.

But on Friday, it was the defenders' turn for some revenge.

The offense was limited to one touchdown during a 91-play scrimmage at Chattanooga Christian. The defense was credited with six sacks, seven tackles for loss, an interception by Lucas Webb and three passes broken up.

photo C.J. Board, right, is hit by A.J. Hampton after a pass reception Friday, April 10, 2015, as the Chattanooga Mocs' work in the second scrimmage of the spring Friday on the field at Chattanooga Christian School.

Defensive tackle Isaiah Mack had two of the team's six sacks. Two of the three pass breakups were by Dee Virgin, who narrowly missed a pair of "pick-sixes" and made a tackle for loss.

"I'll watch the film tomorrow and know I should have had that," he said. "Today I felt the intensity was high on defense. Our practice Wednesday wasn't good -- the offense made a lot of plays -- so we took today as a challenge and competed with those guys and pretty much won today.

"We'll keep practicing hard. The offense is good, and they have their days, but we have to stick to our game and keep improving, both individually and as a team."

It was a far cry from what happened Wednesday, which left both head coach Russ Huesman and defensive coordinator Adam Braithwaite extremely displeased.

They were in better spirits after Friday's action.

"I feel better about it walking off the field today because we didn't give up plays, just like I felt worse about it the other day because we gave up some plays," Braithwaite said. "It's never as bad as you think and never as good as you think. We'll go look at film, and I'm sure there'll be 101 things that we need to improve on, but I was happy with the energy and the effort we had today. That's where it all starts."

The offense still finished with 471 yards on the 91 plays. Their only touchdown came on a slant pass from Alejandro Bennifield to Bingo Morton that the redshirt freshman caught in stride and scored.

Backup quarterback Tyler Roberson linked up with tight end Bailey Lenoir on a 36-yard gain, and Shaqualm McCoy continued his impressive spring, finishing with 90 yards on 13 carries. Richardre Bagley had 40 yards rushing on 11 attempts.

Bennifield completed eight of his 10 passes for 121 yards. Both starting quarterback Jacob Huesman -- who played sparingly -- and Tyler Roberson finished 7-for-12, with Huesman throwing for 60 yards and Robersonfor 53.

Place-kicker Henrique Ribeiro was 4-for-6 on field-goal attempts, connecting from 24, 36, 43 and 19 yards. One of his two misses was into a fierce wind.

Like quarterback Huesman, tailback Derrick Craine had limited action.

"We weren't awful on either side of the ball," Coach Huesman said. "I thought we did some good things on both sides of the ball, and that's what you look for. I know there's going to be some give and take, but I thought the defense was way better today."

Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.

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