Opponents have done a good job attacking the run defense of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga this football season.
This week the Mocs’ opponent will be testing their ability to stop the pass.
Ninth-ranked Samford leads the Southern Conference and ranks sixth in the Football Championship Subdivision in passing offense, throwing for 334.9 yards per game. Quarterback Devlin Hodges, who is on the Walter Payton Award watch list for top player in the FCS, has 20 touchdowns and has completed 67 percent of his passes.
“He’s a dude,” UTC defensive coordinator Tom Kaufman said.
The positive for the Mocs is that they rank first in the league in passing yards allowed, giving up an average of 165.6 per game. But that stat is misleading, as opposing teams haven’t had to throw. No one has tried more than 27 passes against the Mocs.
Teams facing UTC have completed 62 percent of their passes and have 14 touchdowns on 90 completions. They have averaged 9.1 yards per attempt.
It’s no coincidence UTC ranks last in the SoCon and 117th out of 123 FCS teams with a defensive pass efficiency rating of 163.8.
“We have a talented secondary,” head coach Tom Arth said. “We have a group of players that cover well. We haven’t truly been challenged in the pass game, per se, because most teams have been able to run the ball playing with the lead on us for most of the season, and they’re not going to have that many opportunities to drop back and throw.
“It’s a great opportunity for our defense to match up to a different style of play, for our secondary and linebackers to be challenged, and an opportunity for our defensive line to be in some pass rush situations, where they haven’t been in a lot.”
The Mocs have eight sacks in eight games this season, and the challenge will be to figure out a way to generate a pass rush. Arth said that the team has to find a way to “affect the quarterback.”
“We have to affect the trigger man,” he said. “We’ll figure out different ways we can do that and keep them guessing, keep them off guard.”
Samford coach Chris Hatcher was coaching at Murray State while Kaufman was part of Dino Babers’ staff at Eastern Illinois. Kaufman said teams have to be careful not to neglect the Bulldogs’ run game and try to take away their screen game, which Samford uses as an extension of its rushing attack.
“Just when you worry about the pass, they can gash you with the run,” linebacker Tae Davis said. “We can’t forget about the run game.
“It’s going to be a challenge, but we’re certainly looking forward to it.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.