JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – If you are a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football fan this morning, the season shouldn’t have ended the way it did late Saturday afternoon atop top-ranked Jacksonville State’s Burgess-Snow Field.
You just don’t come from 28-14 down to lead 35-28 in the final period, only to lose in overtime, 41-35. That’s too cruel. Too final. And too haunting, because it’s all but certain to cause insomnia for weeks, hundreds of What-If monsters dragging their fingernails across chalkboards inside the head of every true Moc Maniac.
What if senior quarterback Jacob Huesman, otherwise so close to perfect, so far past heroic in his final college game, hadn’t thrown that overtime interception?
What if the official hadn’t given the Gamecocks the first down they didn’t seem to have earned on a third-down pass along the sideline with a little over a minute to go in regulation? Without that first down, Jax State surely would have punted from its own 29, which would have given the Mocs the ball a final time in regulation with a chance to drive for a winning field goal.
What if a defense that had played so well all season hadn’t given up 640 yards on the afternoon, including 432 on the ground, a stunning total for a group that was surrendering only 153 rushing yards a game?
What if the offense, so full of creativity and guts until it took the fourth-quarter lead with 8:35 to go, had saved at least one final surprise for its final possession of regulation? Owning a first down at their own 42 with less than four minutes to go, the Mocs rushed Derrick Craine three times for a total of 3 positive yards. Not one pass. Not one bit of trickery or misdirection.
Some might argue that it was then, not in overtime against a superior foe, that opportunity was most lost.
“It was a great football game,” UTC coach Russ Huesman said afterward. “(JSU) is a well-coached team. Defensively, we didn’t play anywhere close to what we’re capable of playing, but they had a lot to do with that.”
He’s right, of course. For all that seemed to go right for the Mocs after falling behind 21-7 – including an overturned JSU touchdown pass that would have put UTC down 35-14 with nine minutes to go in the third quarter – it was always hard not to view the Gamecocks as the better team.
Offensively, it’s nearly impossible to imagine any team at the FCS level out-talenting the Gamecocks. They’ve got four All-Ohio Valley Conference offensive linemen. Quarterback Eli Jenkins, who torched the Mocs for 403 total yards rushing and passing, was the OVC offensive player of the year. Coach Huesman said receiver Josh Barge “may be the best wideout in the country.” And then there’s running back Troymaine Pope, who picked up 199 of his 234 rushing yards in the second half.
Added Huesman with perhaps the best postgame line of the day: “Thank goodness they didn’t throw to the tight end.”
Yet no one gets this far without wanting to go further, to reach the quarterfinals, maybe the semis, then maybe, just maybe if the football gods are kind, Frisco, Texas, the site of the FCS title game.
And that season-long dream around Mocsville seemed possible when a 39-yard, flea-flicker from 2016 starting quarterback Alejandro Bennifield to Jacob Huesman put UTC on top 35-28 with 8:35 to play.
It was the most brilliant call from an afternoon of inspired play-calling by UTC offensive coordinator Jeff Durden. After being dominated by the Jax State defense in each of the last two meetings, gaining under 200 yards in each outing, the Mocs put up 444 yards this time. They looked every bit the national championship contender their fans had hoped they’d be at season’s dawn.
Or as Jacob Huesman said, his voice shaky, his eyes red from tears, “Jacksonville State’s a darn good football team. But we’ve got a bunch of competitors over there, and it’s those people who had us in this game. Go one play at a time, one drive at a time, put some points on the board and see what happens.”
Repeat the words: “It’s those people who had us in this game.” Of all of Jacob Huesman’s considerable attributes as an athlete, student and leader of young men, his sense of team may have been always his best.
And despite that interception, he may have saved his best individual athletic performance for last. Two rushing touchdowns. Two passing touchdowns. One receiving touchdown. A whopping 297 total yards of offense.
But to praise his teammates as he did was No. 14 at his finest. Even his explanation of the overtime interception, a tough throw tossed a wee bit short, was vintage Huesman: “That mistake is number one, can’t do it. So tough ending to the game.”
It was a tough ending. But all seasons end toughly that don’t end in a championship. Had the Mocs not lost at Mercer, they might have avoided this matchup for two more rounds. But they likely would have still wound up on Burgess-Snow Field facing the Gamecocks in the semis if they’d survived that long.
And once there, they would probably have still faced an overwhelming foe who might even, if threatened enough, thrown to the tight end.
So tough as it is to see a second straight Mocs playoff run come to a close, it’s also worth mentioning Russ Huesman’s words about the accomplishment of getting to the postseason for just the second time since 1984.
“This is a great tournament,” he said. “It is 24 teams that are privileged to be in it.”
No matter how early or late their exit.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com