Last season, an NCAA Division II football team came to town and gave the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga a scare.
The Mocs are determined to make sure that doesn’t happen this time around.
UTC, ranked sixth in Division I’s Football Championship Subdivision, opens the season against Division II opponent Shorter University at 7 p.m. next Thursday at Finley Stadium. Preparation focused on that game has begun, with the team starting the installation of the Hawks’ offensive and defensive schemes Tuesday and continuing that at Wednesday afternoon’s practice.
The Mocs survived a scare from Mars Hill in 2015, needing a late touchdown by Derrick Craine to pull away from the Division II program and win 44-34. The Lions had 428 yards of total offense, the second-most UTC gave up last season.
That game was a week after UTC dropped a 23-20 heartbreaker to sixth-ranked Jacksonville State. And it was a week before the Mocs’ Southern Conference opener against Samford – a game they won 31-21 – so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility to think UTC wasn’t focused on a team it was expected to beat.
“It was definitely one of those games where we look at ourselves and ask, ‘How bad do we want it?” defensive end Keionta Davis said. “That game, we didn’t play like a UTC defense, and other games we always go back to in down moments – or in high moments – and know we don’t need to play like that again.
“We know, no matter who the opponent is, we’ve got to go out there and play the way we play every week – dominate, dominate, dominate. We have to take over from the time of the first kick until there are all zeroes (on the clock). That’s the only way I know how to start the season off, to go out and put a staple on the game. We have to make sure all phases of the game are played perfectly and play hard.”
Preparation for Shorter has been made more difficult because the Rome, Ga., program’s coaching staff has undergone a complete makeover after the Hawks finished 2-8 in 2015. The Hawks previously ran a triple-option offense, rushing the ball 85 percent of the time last season. New head coach Aaron Kelton and new offensive coordinator KiJuan Ware – who was briefly the head coach at Central High School – promised to transition to a more “traditional offense” in the spring.
“We will throw the ball more,” he said in an April interview posted on GoShorterHawks.com, “and that’s been exciting for these guys.”
Although the Mocs are obviously preparing for the Hawks, UTC coaches said their focus is still more inward.
“Even if you’ve got a pretty good plan for opponent, they could be in something completely different, especially when you’re playing an opponent where you really don’t know what you’re going to face,” defensive coordinator Adam Braithwaite said.
“We’re going to have to rely on the base fundamentals to adapt to things we see. They’re going to show us things we haven’t prepared for, and we’re going to have to be able to overcome those things.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.