UTC football coach Tom Arth congratulates UTC linebacker Ty Boeck during a home game against Wofford on Oct. 6.University of Tennessee at Chattanooga defensive players and coaches know that while Western Carolina's quarterback may not be as explosive this week as in many games this season, the offense he leads will still have the ability to be just that.
The Catamounts lead the Southern Conference in points per game with an average of 35.8 and are third in both total offense (489.8) and rushing offense (227.0) while ranking fourth in passing offense (262.8) this season. Yet most of those stats were compiled under the control of dual-threat quarterback Tyrie Adams, a dynamic playmaker.
It's highly unlikely Adams will play Saturday as the Catamounts (3-2, 1-2) host UTC (4-2, 2-2) for a 3:30 p.m. game between teams coming off back-to-back losses. The redshirt junior sustained a chest injury near the end of the Sept. 29 game against Furman. Adams tried to play last week against Samford, and he lasted about three series before being taken out in favor of redshirt freshman Will Jones, who threw for 210 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions.
The challenge is for the Mocs to find a way to slow down the Catamounts' attack - regardless of who is at the helm.
"They have the ability to hurt you in a lot of different ways, whether it's the run game, whether it's run-pass option, play-action pass or the quarterback running the ball or scrambling," UTC coach Tom Arth said.
"You can play defense, cover everything up and still get beat because they have so many special playmakers, so it's going to challenge us from our discipline, our eye discipline - especially in the RPO and some of the option things they do - and our ability to tackle in space and get off blocks will be important as well."
The Catamounts still have running back Connell Young, who ranks sixth in the SoCon by averaging 73.4 rushing yards per game. They still have receivers Nate Mullen and Daquan Patten, both of whom rank in the top 10 in receptions per game. They still have Owen Cosenke, who is tied for fifth in the league with six points per game (five touchdowns).
So if it's Jones at quarterback, he will have pieces to work with.
UTC defensive coordinator Matt Feeney called the challenge "exciting." The Mocs have done a good job of not yielding points - they're second in the league in scoring defense - despite giving up an average of 402.3 yards per game this year.
"They have a high-powered offense that puts up a lot of points," Feeney said. "The offense has been very, very good. They made the switch at quarterback last week - whether it was due to injury or whatever - but he found success in his own way, in a different way that put up points on a solid Samford defense.
"We're excited about the opportunity at hand. We know we have a bunch of things to correct from last week that they do in different ways, so we'll be ready to change and adapt to play those things better."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.