The Times Free Press is taking a daily positional look at the 2018 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team, leading up to its first practice on Aug. 1. Today, we look at the defensive backs:
Talent returning
The Mocs have tons of talent and experience returning in the defensive backfield. Five players – C.J. Fritz, Kareem Orr, Jerrell Lawson, Rashun Freeman and D.J. Jackson – started at least one game last season. Lawson finished with 39 tackles, earning Southern Conference all-freshman honors. Brandon Dowdell played a lot of minutes as a true freshman and joined Lawson on the all-freshman team and junior Cameron Turner and redshirt freshman Jabril Malone are expected to contribute this season. The returning pieces helped the Mocs rank fifth in the SoCon in pass efficiency defense (133.6), giving up the fewest yards per game (163.2) in the league.
Talent coming in
If the talent returning wasn’t enough, the coaching staff brought in even more pieces to compete. Florida International graduate transfer Andrew Brown had 14 starts in two seasons with the program. A pair of freshmen – Boyd-Buchanan product Kohl Henke and Texas athlete CaMiron Smith – could contribute, although it’s more likely they redshirt. Smith is an elite athlete, having won four state championships in track and finishing second in another meet in addition to his football talent.
Strengths
The group is deep and talented. After figuring out the schemes last year, the group limited Samford All-America quarterback Devlin Hodges to more than 30 yards fewer than his average in an upset win in Birmingham; and it shut down East Tennessee State quarterback Austin Herink in a 10-3 win in the season finale. Although the coaching staff went through changes at defensive coordinator and defensive backs, the standard has been set and only adjustments are needed.
Weaknesses
Although the Mocs are flush with experience, they lost a lot of it as well. Safety Lucas Webb and cornerback Trevor Wright, who had a combined 90 starts between the two of them, have graduated. Wright proved to be a solid player over his career and had four interceptions, including one he returned for a score. Orr is expected to replace him.
Webb was a four-time first-team All-SoCon selection who set a conference record for defensive touchdowns with five and had 13 career interceptions, tied with Bucky Wolford (1965-67) and Phillip Aldridge (1982-85) for the school record. Dowdell, who has shown he can be a playmaker in the return game, will get first crack at replacing Webb.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.