At the end of the regular season, after the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga went 6-5 for its first winning campaign since 2005, Mocs football coach Russ Huesman challenged his returning players.
He challenged them to build on what they’d done, not be satisfied with it.
The message was similar following the end of spring practice. The Mocs had a team meeting Monday and Huesman said he stressed that the offseason work the players have done in the past isn’t enough to get UTC to the playoffs.
“My message was, if we do this summer what we did last summer, we’ll probably be a 4-7 ballclub,” he said. “We can be good if they want to. That’s how important these next three months are for them — they’re huge — and they didn’t know that last year.
“Championship teams, teams that win, make a commitment. We all didn’t last year.”
It’s up to the players, Huesman said, to take what they accomplished this spring and keep working hard in the months ahead. That means lifting weights and staying fit and doing whatever else it takes to be better football players when practice starts in August than they were during last Saturday’s Blue & Gold Game.
The Mocs players will meet with their position coaches today and Wednesday to discuss plans for the next few months. Players are off limits to both the UTC staff and strength coach Scott Brincks in May, so anything they do will be voluntary.
Huesman said about 40 players have informed the staff that they will be in Chattanooga for part or all of the summer. Some will attend summer school, others will work and all will be working out regularly.
“This will be my first summer here, the whole summer, and I’m really looking forward to it,” said rising junior Ryan Consiglio, the Mocs’ only returning starter at linebacker. “For the most part, all my buddies that I’ve talked to, all the older guys, we’re all going to stay and really work hard, especially in June and July.
“Just being together, being in Chattanooga, that will make a world of difference as well.”
While Brincks can conduct workouts in June and July, the players have to organize practice sessions. That’s where the benefit of having a coach-like player in quarterback B.J. Coleman pays dividends.
Coleman organized 7-on-7 practices for the offense and defense this winter, and he said he’ll do the same this summer.
“I’ll take care of that and I’ll make sure everything works with everybody’s schedule,” he said.
Offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield said “B.J.’s just like a coach,” and if the players are getting together on their own and doing some constructive work, then they will get better.
“Or,” Satterfield said, “they can sit on their hands and not be good at all.”