The last time the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga won at Wofford in football, former Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning was a rookie for the Indianapolis Colts, K-Ci and JoJo’s “All My Life” was one of the top songs in America and the average cost of gasoline was $1.06 per gallon.
Yeah, it’s been a while.
The fifth-ranked Mocs will try to end a seven-game losing streak dating back to 1998 today when they face the Terriors in Gibbs Stadium. Kickoff is at 1:30 p.m.
UTC’s current players and coaches say there’s nothing special about games at Gibbs that make it difficult to win there. The Terriers, who just had a seven-game home win streak snapped last week against Western Carolina, are just stingy about relinquishing wins on their home turf.
“It’s a tough place to play, but anywhere in the SoCon on the road is tough to play,” senior quarterback Jacob Huesman said. “The tradition there is so good they win games at home. It’s what they’re used to – a protect-this-house mentality that makes it tough to go there and win.”
The Terriers have won those last seven meetings with the Mocs by a combined score of 299-109, with the closest score being a 16-13 overtime victory in 2012. That time frame spans three UTC head coaches – Donnie Kirkpatrick, Rodney Allison and Russ Huesman – with the common thread of not having won a game in Spartanburg since Bill Clinton was President.
“The seven losses in a row, if you look at it, Chattanooga wasn’t very good at the time (for most of it),” Coach Huesman said. “They’re playing home back-to-back games, and they’ve got a nice place to play with a beautiful stadium and an unbelievable campus.
“I don’t think our players will think about the streak. They’re just going to go play a football game.”
Breaking the streak today could hinge on the Mocs’ ability to get off to a good start, something they haven’t done in a couple of weeks. The slow start caused them to fall into a 21-10 hole a week ago at Virginia Military Institute, before they dug out a 33-27 winwith a dominating defensive performance.
A lead could do a lot to silence Wofford’s homecoming crowd.
“I think whenever you’re on the road, it’s always important to have a good start,” UTC defensive tackle Josh Freeman said. “You don’t want to give the crowd an opportunity to get into it. We saw that last week at VMI: We had a pretty good start, but then we gave them life and it was pretty tough sledding from then on out.
“We have to come out and jump on a team as fast as possible and eliminate them from the very beginning.”
Tillery starting
JoJo Tillery, a true freshman from East Ridge High School, is listed as the starting free safety for the Terriers today. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder was pressed into action after a number of injuries in the secondary, and he had a team-high seven tackles in his first career start against Western Carolina.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.