The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga offense got a lot of practice last week running the ball without the presence of preseason All-American Derrick Craine.
The Mocs should get a lot more this week.
The Mocs, who rank third in the Southern Conference and 19th in the Football Championship Subdivision in rushing yards per game, will face a below-average Western Carolina defense Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Cullowhee, N.C. The Catamounts rank last out of 122 FCS teams in rushing yards allowed, having averaged giving up 296.6 yards in seven games.
Led by a 189-yard performance from Richardre Bagley, the Mocs rushed for a season-high 297 yards and three scores in a 30-13 victory over Virginia Military Institute last week. With Craine still nursing an ankle injury and doubtful to play against Western Carolina according to UTC coach Russ Huesman, Bagley and sophomores Alex Trotter and Kyle Nalls will lead the rushing attack.
“I don’t know if there’s really anything specific there,” Huesman said of the Catamounts’ issues stopping the run. “We always want to run the ball and we’ve got to find ways to run the ball effectively, and that’s going to be the deal.
“We’ve got to figure out what we’ve got to do to run the ball in this game and make decisions based on that, but some of those numbers (WCU’s) are skewed.”
Having already faced the SoCon’s two triple-option attacks, the Catamounts gave up 513 yards on the ground against The Citadel and 322 a week later against Wofford. The Bulldogs – who ran for 348 yards against UTC on Oct. 15 – are the nation’s top-ranked rushing attack, while the Terriers rush for 310.1 yards per game and rank fourth. Still, WCU has given up at least 200 yards rushing in every game and allows 5.5 yards per carry.
The fewest rushing yards the Catamounts have allowed this season were 205 against East Tennessee State on Sept. 10, the Bucs’ season high against an FCS opponent. In the next three games combined – against Wofford, UTC and VMI – the Bucs had 198 yards.
The Mocs, who average 41.6 carries per game and 5.5 yards per rush, know there could be opportunities to grind out yards on the ground.
“We always try to run the football,” offensive coordinator Jeff Durden said. “Will we try to run it a little bit more or take advantage of some of the things that have hurt them in the past? Probably so but they’ve got good players and our kids know that.
“Is there something there we can exploit because they are so aggressive? Those are the kinds of things we’ve got to look at and formulate and give our guys an angle where we can be successful, but they’re better than the record.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.