Although the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team has won back-to-back meetings with Samford, the Mocs still can't forget the one they lost.
In 2013, the teams faced off in Birmingham, Ala., where a UTC win would have secured the Southern Conference championship outright after the Mocs hadn't won a SoCon football title in any fashion since 1984. UTC trailed 17-14 in overtime and needed a field goal to force a second extra period or a touchdown to win.
They got neither and missed both in the most excruciating of ways. First, a third-down pass from Jacob Huesman to Taharin Tyson fell inches beyond the fullback's grasp. On the next play, a 31-yard field-goal attempt by Nick Pollard glanced off the left upright and fell back into the field of play.
Game over. Dream dashed. The Mocs finished 6-2 in the league and shared the SoCon title with Furman and Samford, but UTC was the only team of the three left out of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
"Ever since then, we've had this bad taste in our mouths every time we play them because we know we'll get their best shot," Mocs linebacker Nakevion Leslie said. "We still haven't forgot it; that left us out of the playoffs that year. We were done. After that game, our season was pretty much over and it pretty much started this change around here, because we didn't want that feeling of losing again.
"It's going to be good competition every time, so we look forward to games like this. It's a big game for us, and we're going to have to win."
Leslie is one of eight current Mocs who played in that game, and three of them started: receiver C.J. Board, defensive end Keionta Davis and offensive lineman Corey Levin.
Since then, the FCS No. 3-ranked Mocs (3-0, 1-0 SoCon) are 14-1 in conference play heading into this afternoon's 2 p.m. showdown against the Bulldogs (2-0) at Finley Stadium.
It's a big game for UTC coach Russ Huesman, but not because of any past meetings. He expects the Bulldogs to be in the mix for a conference championship this year, making games against the upper echelon teams in the SoCon - like Samford and No. 10 The Citadel (3-0, 2-0) - more important in the title chase.
"When you add it up at the end of the year, Samford is gonna have very few of the 'L's,' because I think they're that talented, that good," Huesman said. "So we can't get behind the 8-ball. We're just going to play, let our guys play football like we're capable of playing and let it go where it goes.
"Hopefully we'll come out on the front of this thing and get a 'W.'"
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.