Sloan Allison, No. 10, looks over his shoulder as Coach Russ Huesman yells toward the sideline during Saturday's scrimmage. The UTC Mocs held a "Meet the Mocs" autograph session before having a scrimmage at Finley Stadium on Saturday.University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman wouldn't use the word "sloppy" to describe his football team's scrimmage Saturday at Finley Stadium.
His preferred term? "Sluggish."
Either way, the Mocs weren't always at their best in the 92-play scrimmage, UTC's second of the preseason. The defense forced a pair of turnovers and kept the offense out of the end zone.
"I think sloppy is worse than sluggish, but sluggish is not great," Huesman said. "I thought sluggish because it didn't look like we had a lot of bounce in our legs, [on] either side of the ball."
Many of the Mocs looked a little leg-weary Saturday, both from 18 practices in 17 days and the two hours they spent on the hot turf before the scrimmage taking the team photo and participating in an autograph session.
Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said he felt a lot better walking off the field after Saturday's scrimmage than he did last week's. Even though the offense didn't score, it was at least able to move the ball and get some first downs.
"I definitely would have liked to have scored touchdowns, but we didn't -- so hopefully our defense is that good," Satterfield said. "Because if they're not that good we're in trouble."
The offense opened the scrimmage well with quarterback B.J. Coleman hitting wideout Joel Bradford for 16 yards. Later, Coleman found his top target again, this time for 18 yards on third-and-10.
After the offense drove down to the 13, cornerback Kadeem Wise picked off a pass intended for Bradford on third-and-4.
"The coverage we called, it was set for me to camp out, to play the double-out, and when he threw it I made a break on it," Wise said.
Bradford said there was a mixup on the play.
"Honestly, he couldn't see me because of the line, and it was actually a misread," said Bradford, who had five catches for 51 yards. "I ran the wrong route, and he threw the wrong ball."
Unlike his coach, Bradford said the offense was "sloppy," because it didn't play with enough energy.
"We weren't jogging in and out of the huddle, we weren't fast, and when we're not fast things look sloppy," he said.
Coleman, who went 12-of-21 for 117 yards, had to throw a lot of quick passes because he didn't have much time to look downfield. The front four of the defense frequently got into the backfield and pressured the quarterbacks.
Defensive end Josh Williams had two of the defense's four sacks.
"We're definitely happy with how we played today, but you can't get too confident," Williams said.
The Mocs will have a light practice at Scrappy Moore Field tonight. Huesman said the session would be little more than a walkthrough before the players take Monday off -- their first break since practice began on Aug. 4.