The depth on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's defensive line in 2012 is now paying dividends in 2015.
Three seasons ago, coming off of a season in which he was named to the Southern Conference's all-freshman team, Josh Freeman chose to redshirt, as the Mocs had extremely good depth at the position with the addition of Georgia transfer Derrick Lott to an already impressive unit.
Last year, it was Toyvian Brand, who made the decision to redshirt even though he was entering his final year of college. Like Freeman, Brand was looking at an impressive group around him, with a pair of NFL prospects in Lott and Davis Tull.
It wasn't an easy decision. Between defensive tackle and defensive end, Brand had started 23 games in his three-year career. When posed with the option of redshirting, the easy decision would have been to pout and not do things to help the football team.
Brand took the more difficult path. He worked every day with the scout team, making the offense better while getting better himself.
"I learned from Josh (Freeman). He told me that at first, he didn't want to redshirt after starting for a year," Brand said after Saturday's practice. "But as things progressed, he just chose to learn to get better. I tried to take that mindset, and I feel I got better last year and learned a lot. I spent a lot of time in the film room and learned from that, and on the field I just feel like I'm a better overall player."
He added that working a lot on scout team last season gave him an opportunity to build a relationship with the 2014 freshman class.
"We've all built a better relationship overall," Brand said. "They've got respect for me, and I've got respect for them."
UTC coach Russ Huesman said that Brand's redshirt in 2014 was "one of the key moves we made last year."
"When they redshirt as freshmen, they kind of anticipate it and understand, but when you redshirt guys that have played for you, it's tough on them," Huesman said. "Then you send them to the scout team, and they have to take the approach that they're going to get better and make the offense better, and Toy did that. Toy got better and made our offense better. If they go down and pout it doesn't pay dividends, but if they go down there and work and try to be great players, it'll pay dividends, and for Toy it'll pay dividends this year."
Both Brand and Huesman said that play recognition was one of the areas where the 6-foot-2, 260-pounder has really progressed in his game.
"Our offense runs a lot of zone reads, and there are a lot of different variables, and a lot of the teams we play do that same stuff," Huesman said. "Seeing that every day has helped him become a better player."
Freeman followed up his redshirt season with an all-conference campaign in 2013, and Brand hopes to be able to have similar results. Their redshirts were a luxury due to the amount of depth on the line in the previous couple of seasons, but it's not something that the team can afford to do this season.
"This year, we need them all," Huesman said. "Last year we had a ton of defensive players and a ton of bodies, so we had the ability to do that. This year, there's not much depth there, so everybody's gonna have to be ready."
One thing is for certain: Brand is.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.