The grind.
It might be the most popular buzzword in athletics today.
Manage the grind. Embrace the grind. Enjoy the grind.
And when you're about to play your ninth college football game in nine weeks - as the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs are this Saturday at Western Carolina - the grind can become both mental and physical, robbing players and coaches alike of energy, focus and determination.
"Some people think it's just nine weeks," UTC coach Russ Huesman said during Tuesday's weekly media luncheon. "But these guys have been going at it since July - running and lifting weights and working out together. It's probably tougher on them mentally than physically."
Huesman even met with his team following the loss at The Citadel on Oct. 15 to discuss the subject, knowing the Mocs had played seven consecutive weeks with two more to go before a break.
"We told them, 'These next two weeks are going to be a grind. Be prepared for it,'" he said. "One of the toughest traits to instill in your football team is consistency. When you first take over a program and you win a big game, everybody tells you they love you for three or four days. It's hard to focus. It's hard to get them ready for the next game.
"But over the years, our guys have gotten pretty good with that. Win or lose, they have the same temperament."
The grind, to some extent, ends Saturday at the close of the Western Carolina game. UTC gets a bye week on the Saturday of Nov. 5, which should greatly help this 7-1 team (5-1 in Southern Conference play) in its final two regular-season games against Wofford and at FBS No. 1 Alabama.
"The open date will be good to get some people healthy," said Huesman, now in his eighth season coaching at the school. "And they might want to get away from me, too."
Mocs junior defensive back Trevor Wright offered no words about the need to escape from Huesman for a weekend, but when asked what was tougher about the grind, the physical or the mental, he said, "The mental aspect.
"When you first get here you're not used to the work. It takes time to learn how to be physically and mentally prepared. You have to watch what (the older players) do. I've learned to watch a lot more film, really study the opponent. And I've tried to get physically stronger the last two years."
How much stronger?
"I weighed 158 soaking wet when I first got here," said the Greeneville, Tenn., resident who's started 27 games over his two-plus seasons on the team. "I weigh 180 now."
Junior running back Ricardre Bagley also weighs 180 pounds, though his is spread over a compact 5-foot-9 frame instead of Wright's lanky 6-1 body.
After gaining 189 yards and scoring two touchdowns while starting in place of the injured Derrick Craine in last week's win over VMI - numbers that earned him STATS FCS player of the week honorable mention and SouthernPigskin.com X-factor of the week - Bagley appears more than ready to accept the grind of carrying the football at least 23 times, as he did against the Keydets.
"It's just our belief in our coaches and each other," said the resident of Powder Springs, Ga. "We know that everything we do is for a reason."
That mindset also helped the Mocs deal with The Citadel loss, which may have cost them a fourth straight Southern Conference title.
"That loss was definitely a gut-check," Bagley said. "We all had a kind of come-to-Jesus moment after that one. We said, 'Look, we can get beat.'"
Not so subtly hidden in that statement is quite possibly why the grind doesn't seem so wearying to this UTC squad, which is again ranked eighth in the FCS coaches' poll and moved up to 10th from 11th in the STATS poll.
"From the time I first came here as a freshman, we've always been blessed with great team leaders," Bagley explained. "They've always known the right things to say and do."
Perhaps that's how the Mocs shook off that 22-15 loss at The Citadel to win 30-13 this past weekend.
Just as important, perhaps that's why Bagley dismissed the notion that the grind of nine straight games without a bye could leave this veteran team vulnerable to an upset at Western Carolina.
"We could go the whole season without an off week," Bagley said, "if we needed to."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com