It’s the season that nobody saw coming.
The new University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coaching staff arrived on campus in January, hoping to continue to ride the wave of 36 wins in four seasons and three consecutive appearances in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
In the coaches’ minds, the first season might be a little rocky considering the loss of five All-Americans to graduation, but they’d figure out a way to be competitive, win some games and compete for a playoff spot. Keep the train rolling.
Returning players, transfers and incoming freshmen didn’t expect anything to change. But something happened along the way.
Everything changed.
The Mocs are 1-7 entering Saturday’s game at ninth-ranked Samford. While showing occasional signs of life and slight improvements, the offense has been subpar; the defense has given up far too many big plays and have forced a turnover only in two games. Even when the overall performance has improved, the final result hasn’t been in the team’s favor, such as the 20-14 loss to The Citadel last Saturday.
“This is not what we expected at all, but we can’t do anything about it now. We can only build on it,” freshman quarterback Cole Copeland said. “We’ve been through a lot of adversity, probably more than many other teams in the league and the NCAA, really. There aren’t that many teams that have gone through what we’ve gone through with the coaching change and everything going downhill, especially from the winning background.
“Our record is drastically different, but we could have a lot of good come out of it. We’re looking forward to the challenge of building on something every day.”
While an underclassman-heavy team has had to learn a lot on the fly, so has the coaching staff. Ten of the 11 on-field coaches have five or fewer seasons of experience in their current roles, so there’s been a learning curve for them as well.
“It’s tough,” head coach Tom Arth said. “That’s the challenge you have. What motivates me is how I respond, how we all respond. The challenge I have is to make sure I respond the right way, make sure everybody involved with our team responds the right way. That’s all we can do. We know we’re doing things the right way; we know we’re improving.
“Unfortunately it’s taking more time than anybody would have hoped, but we know we’re on the right track, and when we get it right it’s going to be really good. It’s just taking more time than we’d hoped.”
Did Arth think it would take this long?
“No,” he said with a slight laugh. “Nothing great ever comes easily, but we certainly didn’t expect to be where we’re at. We’d be foolish to think that, with the success of the program in the past.
“Never in a million years would I have imagined we’d be in the position we’re in, but the reality is we are. There’s a lot of reasons why we are, and it’s my job to get those corrected and make sure we get back to where this program has been and ultimately take it to another level.”
Most of the upperclassmen will be gone by the time everything fully comes together. Most of the underclassmen could be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor, after a 2017 season that at best will end with four wins. Still, the most impressive part of this season is how the players have responded. Practices throughout have been spirited and lively. Maybe things turn around quickly, maybe they don’t, but you won’t be able to convince any of the players of the latter.
“From all the past success we’ve had here, it’s been tough, but it’s also been a learning experience,” senior linebacker Tae Davis said. “It just teaches you how to handle adversity. Not everything is smooth sailing; there’s going to be some bumps and bruises along the way.
“I’ve learned a lot about myself and my teammates, and it’s something that can help me along the way, so whenever something comes along I’ll know how to handle it and overcome.”
Arth – who with his next loss will equal the number of defeats he suffered at John Carroll in four seasons – said the coaching staff has learned a lot as well.
“I think it’s been really positive in that way for a lot of our coaches,” Arth said. “This was very new to them schematically – learning our offense, learning our defense, learning our special teams, it was new. We had to learn the league, learn the players on our team. There’s so much learning that goes into it.
“It’s challenged each of us, helped us grow and become even better coaches, and it’s going to make us better in the future. It’s been positive, other than being able to go out there and get the wins.”
James Madison added
Arth spoke of scheduling top-level competition when he arrived in Chattanooga.
He has backed that up.
The Mocs have scheduled home-and-home games against 2016 FCS national champion James Madison: on Sept. 21, 2019, in Chattanooga and Sept. 12, 2020, in Harrisonburg, Va.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.