Isaiah Mack may not have the flash of former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga teammates Keionta Davis or Davis Tull, but his name belongs up there with them.
Mack had a collegiate career-high three sacks in the Mocs’ 34-27 win over Virginia Military Institute on Saturday, helping lead them to their sixth straight win and guaranteeing a seventh season this decade with a winning record. The senior, who prepped at Northwest Whitfield, also had nine tackles and four tackles for loss as the Mocs won their second consecutive game and stayed in the hunt to make the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
“Mack brings it every single day,” UTC quarterback Nick Tiano said of the 6-foot-3, 305-pounder. “I think staying patient and not getting frustrated is paying off for him. He does that to us every single day, and it’s awesome for us to see him do it on Saturday. He’s playing great and we love to see it.”
For his career, Mack has 19.5 sacks, four behind Josh Williams for third all-time in school history. His 39 tackles for loss already rank third – behind Tull and Davis, who were All-Americans at UTC during their time.
“It feels amazing just to be mentioned with KD, Davis Tull and all those guys,” Mack said. “I’m just going to try to keep making them proud and hopefully get more sacks.”
His performance helped key a pass rush that sacked VMI quarterback Reece Udinski seven times, the most in the Tom Arth era and the most for a UTC team since the Mocs had seven against Sam Houston State in the 2016 FCS playoffs’ second round.
Defensive back Jordan Jones had two sacks, while freshman defensive end Devonnsha Maxwell had a career-high 1.5 and Khayyan Edwards chipped in with one.
But Mack – playing without fellow senior defensive lineman Derek Mahaffey, who was ejected for striking a VMI player early in the game – was the catalyst. His Saturday sacks total gave him 5.5 in the past two games alone and seven for the season.
“I feel like it’s been nothing more than the coaches giving me good preparation, keeping me ready for the game and making sure I know who I’m going against, so I can use whatever move I need to make,” Mack said. “But at the end it’s effort. All it is is effort.”
Coach Arth added the explanation of “selfless” in how Mack and the rest of the UTC defense attacked Udinski, not only getting to the quarterback but affecting a number of his throws.
“Isaiah has been doing a really good job of rushing the quarterback,” Arth said. “I thought Isaiah and the rest of our guys did a great job of rushing through their man and tearing off when they got to the rush point of the quarterback. I thought that was a very big part of the preparation this week, and I thought they went out and executed that well today.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.