Brian Sutherland had something to prove this spring.
The speedy University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wide receiver left school for personal reasons last September. He was allowed to return in January, and he did so knowing that he had some relationship mending to do with his teammates.
In December, after coach Russ Huesman told him he could rejoin the team, Sutherland wondered “if the players are going to accept me or not,” he said then.
The Smyrna, Ga., native transferred to UTC from Miami (Ohio) last January, in part to be closer to his family. The redshirt freshman was part of UTC’s All-Southern Conference 4×100-meter relay team last spring. In the fall he played in the Mocs’ first two games, and then abruptly left school.
The 5-foot-10, 175-pound Sutherland walked off the field following the Blue & Gold Game on April 10 with a big smile on his face. Playing with the second unit, he caught eight passes for 113 yards and a touchdown, and also scored a 4-yard touchdown on a screen pass that was ruled a lateral.
It was a satisfying end to spring practice and an offseason in which he showed the Mocs that his heart’s in the game.
“I feel like I did to a certain extent,” Sutherland said. “I mean this summer is also a big step for me and the team, too, so I plan on being up here more in the summer than I was last time. I feel I did pretty well this spring.”
As UTC rebuilt its receiving corps this spring, Sutherland was a popular target for quarterback B.J. Coleman and also got a lot of carries on reverses. Coleman said after the spring game that Sutherland’s work since returning to the team hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“Brian is somebody who came back and has really tried to prove himself and earn the respect of the other teammates,” Coleman said. “I think slowly but surely he’s doing a great job of earning it.”
Sutherland’s best play of the spring game, and a possible harbinger of things to come, was his 65-yard touchdown catch. Sutherland didn’t run the 40-yard dash with the rest of his teammates Thursday because of a bad hamstring, but he’s one of the two or three fastest players on the team and certainly among the fastest in the SoCon.
If he can get behind the defense, there aren’t many, if any, defensive backs in the league, except maybe his teammate Buster Skrine, that can catch him.
“I like going deep,” Sutherland said. “I tell them to challenge me deep every time, throw it as far as you can and I’ll try to go get it.”
Coleman described the still-developing Sutherland, who has three years of eligibility left and has yet to catch a ball for UTC, as an “X factor” that the Mocs are going need big things from in the fall.
“He’d be the first one to tell you that he’s got a long way to go, and we need him. Brian is somebody who for us is going to be a very, very important X factor, a dynamic player, and we need that kind of player,” Coleman said. “I think Brian knows it and he took one step in the right direction (this spring).”