For the second consecutive week, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team must contend with an explosive offense led by a game-breaking running back.
Only this time, the season is on the line.
The seventh-ranked Mocs (8-3) will host 14th-ranked Fordham in the opening round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs at 1 p.m. today at Finley Stadium. It's the only matchup in the first round that features two top-15 teams, and the winner earns a trip to top-ranked Jacksonville State (which has a bye today) next week.
The Rams (9-2) are led by sophomore running back Chase Edmonds, who won the Jerry Rice Award as the nation's top freshman last season and is the Patriot League's offensive player of the year for 2015. The Mocs face Edmonds a week after playing against Florida State and dynamic running back Dalvin Cook, who had 106 yards and two touchdowns in the Seminoles' 52-13 win in Tallahassee.
The 5-foot-9, 190-pound Edmonds has 1,643 yards and 20 touchdowns this season - including a game in which he rushed for 347 yards - and has definitely drawn the eyes of the UTC defensive coaches.
"He is what everybody says he is," defensive coordinator Adam Braithwaite said. "He's as good a back as we've played at our level. He's a guy that we have to have more than one person try to tackle him and be assignment-sound, fit the gaps and be in the right spot, because he's a cut-on-a-dime guy, an explosive guy, a make-you-miss guy."
That ability to make people miss is something the Mocs don't want Edmonds to have the chance to display this afternoon.
"When I see him making their opponents look bad, you have to stop and say, 'Wow, that's pretty cool," defensive back Sema'je Kendall said. "You have to focus on stopping him, though. It's not going to be fun if he does that to you, so you have to focus and slow him down."
Edmonds is a big reason for the Rams' success, but he's not the sole one for a team that ranks 17th nationally in yards per game (456.6) and eighth in scoring (38.4). Quarterback Kevin Anderson, a transfer from Marshall, has thrown for 2,854 yards and 29 touchdowns while rushing for 329 yards and another score.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Anderson has spread the ball out - eight receivers have at least 12 catches this season.
"I think that is what kind of poses the problem," UTC head coach Russ Huesman said. "If it was just a team throwing it all over the place or a team running the ball - but you have to defend a run and a pass first, second, third and fourth down. That's why this offense is one of the tougher ones we'll face this year."
Huesman was very high on Edmonds, saying that if there is a better running back at the FCS level, "I haven't seen him and I'd be shocked if there is one," while adding that he is what makes the Fordham offense so potent, so good.
"The kid could be playing at a lot of places, and I think that's the scary part," Huesman said. "I hope you guys don't see on Saturday how good he is."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at @genehenleytfp.