Wiedmer: Mocs and Vols both can win national titles

UTC head football coach Russ Huesman chats with attendees at a national signing day event at Finley Stadium on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
UTC head football coach Russ Huesman chats with attendees at a national signing day event at Finley Stadium on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Maybe because it's late August, and my brain - never overly large - has shriveled to the size of a prune due to the dastardly drought and oppressive heat, I keep having this recurring college football dream.

Actually, it's sort of two dreams, both involving teams that call the state of Tennessee home. But it always ends exceedingly well for both fan bases, since I keep seeing both our town's University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs and their big brothers to the northeast - the Tennessee Volunteers - winning national championships this season.

Yes, I am somewhat out on a very lonely limb with this prediction. And for what it's worth, only once since 1978 - when the former designations I-A and I-AA began, since replaced by FCS (UTC's level) and FBS (UT) - have two teams from the same state been able to claim Division I football national championships in the same season.

That was 1990, when Georgia Southern won the third of its six I-AA titles at the same time Georgia Tech earned the United Press International national championship, which was voted on by the coaches. Colorado won that year's Associated Press poll.

But lest you worry that this year's pollsters may know more than me, which would be an understandable conclusion, I feel the need to trot out a quote from Gene Wilder's character Jim the Waco Kid in the cult classic "Blazing Saddles," given the sad news of the comic genius Wilder's passing on Monday.

Said the Waco Kid to Bart after he's insulted: "You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the New West. You know morons."

And anyone moronic enough to ignore these Vols and Mocs as legitimate national championship contenders is doing so at his or her own risk.

The Mocs are an easy argument. They lost in overtime at Jacksonville State in the 2015 playoffs and the Gamecocks went all the way to the national championship game before falling to North Dakota State, just like every other FCS program that's faced the Bison in the postseason the last five years.

No, UTC doesn't have Jacob Huesman at quarterback for a 14th straight season, the coach's son finally running out of eligibility, no doubt much to the delight of every Southern Conference defensive coordinator who had to face the three-time Southern Conference offensive player of the year.

But the Mocs figure to be better most everywhere else, especially in the depth department. And while junior quarterback Alejandro Bennifield certainly has the biggest symbolic shoes to fill on coach Russ Huesman's eighth UTC squad, he does appear to throw a slightly better ball than Jacob and also seems to have more weapons around him.

But given the talent on the Mocs defense - long a Coach Huesman priority - Bennifield shouldn't have to win games so much as manage them, much as Tee Martin did 18 years ago for the Vols the year after Peyton Manning graduated.

There may never be the equal of Jacob Huesman at the quarterback position for UTC, just as it's highly unlikely the Vols will ever start a better quarterback than Manning. But UT won its lone national championship of the past 65 years with Martin under center. A similar ending could easily await these Mocs with Bennifield.

As for this UT team, Team 120, as coach Butch Jones loves to call it, other than depth and NFL high-draft talent along the offensive line, these Vols would almost seem ready to house themselves on Noah's Ark, blessed with two of nearly everything for the first time since Phillip Fulmer's heyday in the 1990s.

So with each team's opener scheduled for Thursday night - outmanned Shorter at UTC, dangerous Appalachian State at UT - what are the potential potholes for each of them?

For the Mocs, having won or shared the past three SoCon titles, there's the double trouble of complacency and injuries. Much as this team is driven to produce a long playoff run, you can get to those playoffs only through a dynamic regular season.

For that reason, UTC should be quite wary of its homecoming game against Mercer, which beat the Mocs last year, a road trip to The Citadel the following week and the Nov. 19 road trip to Alabama, mostly because you don't want your starters banged up for the playoffs.

Tennessee's hopes for a playoff berth hinge on the Vols' ability to go no worse than 11-1 in the regular season before winning the SEC title game for the first time since the national title year of 1998. It's that simple. It may also be that hard given a four-week nightmare that has them hosting Florida, traveling to Georgia and Texas A&M in back-to-back weeks and hosting Bama on Oct. 15. Tennessee is good enough to run the table, but it must go 11-1 or 12-0 and win the league title game to make the four-team national championship playoff.

It says here that LSU, Oklahoma and Clemson will join the Vols in those playoffs. It also says here that Stanford's Christian McCaffrey - who might have won the Heisman a year ago had he played on the East Coast instead of the West - will take home the little bronze stiff-armer this time around.

But whether we're ready or not, whether our teams are any good or not, it all starts Thursday night, which brings us back to the late, great Wilder and one of his most beloved characters, Willy Wonka, who once said: "The suspense is terrible. I hope it'll last."

In the cases of UT and UTC, may it last all the way to January, when both the FBS and FCS will crown their respective champions.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.

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