CHARLESTON, S.C. – The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team sat in the visitors’ locker room Saturday moments after its 22-14 loss to The Citadel. The Mocs’ mood was sour and salty after an opportunity for a big-time win had slipped through their fingertips.
To make matters worse, they had to listen to the eighth-ranked Bulldogs celebrate perhaps the biggest victory in their school’s history in the adjacent locker room.
“It’s gives our team a lot of fire going into the next game,” quarterback Alejandro Bennifield said. “You’re looking around and seeing guys upset and mad we lost, then on top of it, they’re celebrating. It felt like they were in our locker room celebrating, kind of at us, so that’s going to give us a lot of fire going into next week.”
The eighth-ranked Bulldogs – who should find themselves in the Football Championship Subdivision top five when new rankings come out today – won by dominating time of possession and limiting third-ranked UTC when it had the ball.
The Mocs had eight possessions for a total of 20 minutes, 29 seconds. One of those – their only one of the second quarter – lasted 6:29, meaning that in their seven other drives, the average time of possession was two minutes.