Walking off the Finley Stadium field Saturday night, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman felt that his team’s offense wasn’t explosive enough, that his defense played hard but not always smart, and that the special teams had a standout game.
Film study a day later affirmed his thoughts.
The 10th-ranked Mocs put to bed the disappointing 23-20 loss to sixth-ranked Jacksonville State, and on Tuesday afternoon turned their attention to their next opponent, NCAA Division II Mars Hill. It will be their second home game to start the season, taking the place of the Austin Peay series, which was bought out by the Governors after last season.
“We’ve gotta regroup,” Huesman said at Tuesday’s media luncheon. “The JSU game isn’t going to define our season. We have to recover and get ready to play again. We have 10 regular-season games left, and every one is just as important as the one we just played. Mars Hill is the next one, and we’d better get better. We need to improve this week and play smarter or it’ll be a long day on Saturday.
“I think we will recover, practice hard and play better Saturday.”
UTC defensive end Vantrel McMillan, who had six tackles including 1.5 for loss, said that while watching the game film was at times, “frustrating,” the team has moved on to this week and will be better for it.
“We played a good ball game as a whole, but JSU came out on top,” he said. “It was difficult, but we’re not going to let that game dictate our whole season. We still have goals to obtain.”
The defense gave up 411 yards of offense against the Gamecocks, who moved to sixth in one poll after their win. The UTC offense, meanwhile, was lacking in explosive plays, with only one play of 20 yards or more – a completion from Jacob Huesman to Richardre Bagley on the game’s first drive.
That will be a focus of the offense this week, with a big conference showdown with Samford looming next week in Birmingham, Ala.
“Without explosive plays, it’s hard to get on track and do what our offense is built to do,” receiver Alphonso Stewart said. “I feel the (big) plays just didn’t happen. We’ve gotta build and do what we know how to do.”
Stewart said that Saturday night, he wished the team could have immediately got back on the practice field to start ironing out the mistakes and be better not only this week, but for the rest of the season.
“We have to bounce back fast, very fast in order for us to do what we need to do this year,” he said.
The extra yard
*Huesman pinpointed the effort of defensive end Keionta Davis, who finished with three tackles for loss and a sack Saturday. McMillan and safety Montrell Pardue were also singled out, as was linebacker Nakevion Leslie on defense. Offensively, Huesman said running back Derrick Craine, who had a team-high 59 yards rushing, “ran the ball hard.”
*Saturday’s crowd of 15,812 was the third largest in UTC’s history at Finley Stadium. Only the Tennessee State game on Oct. 18, 1997 (22,642) and the Georgia Southern game on Oct. 16, 2010 (17,414) had more.
*The Mocs fell to 1-11 in games decided by three points or less in the Huesman era.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.