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Mocs receiver Ashton Schumann took the long route to Chattanooga

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC junior Ashton Schumann makes a catch during the team's July 29 practice at Scrappy Moore Field. Schumann spent the 2023 season with FBS member Tulsa but played in just one game, but he was a Division II standout the past two years at the University of Central Oklahoma. Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC junior Ashton Schumann makes a catch during the team's July 29 practice at Scrappy Moore Field. Schumann spent the 2023 season with FBS member Tulsa but played in just one game, but he was a Division II standout the past two years at the University of Central Oklahoma.

By Times Free Press Staff August 9, 2026 5 min read

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coaches liked almost everything about receiver Ashton Schumann as a transfer prospect: the hands, the route feel, the on-field success to date in his collegiate career, albeit in NCAA Division II, which is a step down from UTC’s level of competition.

There just wasn’t much of him.

Enrolling in January gave UTC’s strength coaches seven extra months with Schumann, though, and he has added 20 pounds, giving the listed 6-foot-2, 187-pounder the type of frame that should help him as he goes through the 2026 season with the Mocs.

“I think he’s just a solid, reliable, high football IQ type of player,” receivers coach Ricky Spradling said. “I don’t think he’s the biggest out there, I don’t think he’s going to be the fastest — kind of like a dirty role player. When you watch his film, he makes the tough catches. There’s always somebody hanging on to him. He gets a head on a head with a tackle out here, you think he’s going to walk off the field, and he just goes back and fights more.

“Tough kid, comes from a great family, but I think he’s just a solid, reliable football guy, and that’s what you want in your program.”