The Football Championship Subdivision playoffs started a week ago.
But for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, the playoff atmosphere started about a month ago, and the Mocs have been better for it.
The seventh-ranked Mocs (9-3), who face top-ranked Jacksonville State (10-1) this afternoon at 2 EST in Jacksonville, Ala., have gone through a five-week stretch of games with playoff implications. They hope that will help them today against the Gamecocks, who defeated UTC 23-20 on Sept. 5 in the season opener.
There was the game at home against Western Carolina in which a lot of Southern Conference followers predicted the Catamounts would win. UTC won that game 42-13. The Mocs lost the following week at Mercer, ultimately costing them a top-five seed and a first-round bye, but followed that up with a 31-23 pasting of SoCon co-champion The Citadel that sealed their spot in the playoffs.
And, of course, last week was an actual playoff game, and the Mocs jumped on No. 14 Fordham 38-0 on the way to a 50-20 victory.