UTC right guard Chris Barnes, left, waits for center Noah Ramsey, right, to snap the ball to quarterback Nick Tiano during the Mocs’ Aug. 30 season opener against Tennessee Tech.If the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team was looking for an easy opponent to help cure its recent rushing woes, it won’t find one this week.
Wofford has given up an average of 102.5 rushing yards per contest this season, a number slightly skewed by having already faced triple-option-heavy The Citadel, which ran for 217 yards on 55 carries in the Terriers’ 28-21 season-opening win on Sept. 1.
Since then, the Terriers have allowed 193 yards on 77 carries, or 2.5 yards per run, which is exactly what the Mocs have averaged in their past two games (135 yards on 55 attempts). That does include quarterback Nick Tiano being sacked five times for a loss of 35 yards last week.
It has led to the Mocs being more one-dimensional than coach Tom Arth would like.
Eighty percent of UTC’s offensive yards have come through the air the past two weeks – a win over Samford and last week’s loss at East Tennessee State University – which is up from 69 percent in the first three games, when the Mocs averaged 131.7 rushing yards per game.
Arth said the offensive line has to win its one-on-one matchups, something the team worked on this week in preparation for Saturday’s game.
“I think Wofford has a great defensive line,” Arth said. “It’s going to be a big challenge for us; it’s certainly a strength for their team. Hopefully we’ll do a better job than we have the past couple of weeks.”
ETSU’s game plan was to take away the Mocs’ balance with different looks. It led to a number of single-coverage opportunities on the outside for the UTC receivers, that if they had been able to execute would have led to big gains early, which could have taken the Buccaneers out of their all-out pressure up front and given the Mocs chances to run the ball with fewer people in the box. But due to the pressure, Tiano wasn’t able to step into his deep throws, which led to a couple of passes either too deep or too short. Or receivers weren’t able to make plays enough times to make a difference.
“We need to run the ball better,” Arth said. “We need to do a better job of being consistent in the run attack. I thought we got off to a great start running the ball, but we’ve had some issues the past couple of weeks that we’ve addressed. We know what they are, and we need to get them fixed.”
At least one UTC offensive linemen believes part of the problem is winning at the point of attack.
“Our focus this week has been on being more physical,” Chris Barnes said early this week. “Last week we got tested. They sent some blitzes, some twists at us, and we couldn’t pick it up well. This week our focus has been on being more physical, communicating and executing our plays better.”
The communication part is important. While talented, this year’s starting group of junior tackles Harrison Moon and Malcolm White, sophomore guards Barnes and Cole Strange and sophomore center Noah Ramsey has five starts together. Prior to this season, only White – who has 29 career starts at UTC – and Strange, who has started the past 11 games, had college experience on offense.
Call it on-the-job training.
“We just have to keep working at it,” Tiano said. “It’s going to open up eventually. Those guys are doing a great job. They’re working their tails off. The coaches are doing everything they can to find schemes in the run game to bust big plays, and that stuff is going to come.
“We just have to keep pounding, keep sticking to it, keep trusting it, and it’s going to happen for us.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.