In line to be a starter this year, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior offensive lineman Will Buchanan went down in preseason camp with a back injury.
After hardly playing any meaningful snaps for the Mocs in 2023 — when he held a reserve role after transferring following three years at Football Bowl Subdivision member Liberty University — Buchanan had gone through the spring as a presumed first-teamer and entered practices in late summer as the leader at left guard.
So while Buchanan was frustrated at being sidelined by the slipped disk, the 6-foot-6, 323-pounder didn’t pout during his recovery. He continued to work, getting himself healthy while preparing as much as possible as though he was in the lineup.
And when a lower-body injury to left tackle Almarion Crim during last week’s 41-10 win at Furman opened the door for Buchanan, he was ready.
“He’s progressively tried to work himself back into it and get better,” UTC coach Rusty Wright said Tuesday. “We’ve moved him around a couple of times (within the offensive line), and he’s handled that OK. He wants to be a guy, and I know they all do to a certain degree, but he’s worked really hard trying to be a good football player.
“He’s got it in him. He’s talented enough, he’s got to help us, and I tell these guys all the time, and it’s a credit to that young man. He went in there Saturday, and I’m not sure he had a missed assignment; might’ve had one. But he’s trying to prepare himself to go play, and when his opportunity came, he went and did what he was supposed to do.”
Tight end Jay Gibson said “you could see” the growth in Buchanan during the spring and summer. Gibson is in his seventh season of college football due in part to missing the 2021 season with an injury from camp, so he has some experience with what Buchanan has faced. Gibson said that while such a setback is discouraging to experience, he observed that Buchanan was engaged throughout the recovery process and was ready Saturday.
“That’s probably the first live snaps he’s had Saturday since one of the games last year,” Gibson said, “so he’s shaking off the rust, and he’s going to get better every week, and we’re counting on him.”
GoMocs.com photo by Laura O’Dell / UTC junior offensive lineman Will Buchanan (78) blocks during the Mocs’ 41-10 win against Furman last Saturday in Greenville, S.C.The Mocs showed no obvious limitations from the in-game transition on the stat sheet, with the dominant offensive performance helping them improve to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the Southern Conference as they seek a second straight appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. They also moved up four spots this week to No. 19 in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 heading into Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. matchup with Wofford (3-3, 1-2) at Finley Stadium.
“You’re one play away all the time if you’re a second-string guy. If you’re third string, you’re two plays away,” Buchanan said. “You never know what’s going to happen. Preparation is everything for the sport. So just being ready and paying attention to film, paying attention to practice, taking those mental reps, because the ones get more reps.”
Crim didn’t practice Tuesday, but if he’s unable to go, the line showed it’s still in good shape. Offensive line coach Kevin Revis works a number of guys at different positions just in case something happens, and it’s times like now when availability and flexibility helps.
“If a guy gets to work it in practice, I never have a problem with it,” Revis said. “I want to put our next-best guy in, not just our next-best left tackle. He (Buchanan) is the next-best player, so he did get to work that, but if our right tackle went down, I’d have no problem putting him in.”
Buchanan was born in Greenville, South Carolina, but his family moved to Asheville, North Carolina — where his father Scott is from — when he was an infant. He knows a lot of people in that region who were affected as the remnants of Hurricane Helene passed through last month, and he called the stories he has heard “devastating.”
“I thank God every day for the opportunities that I have and the opportunities to grow as a man with Coach Wright and Coach Revis,” he said. “Obviously I would like to be home and helping those people and helping my community back home, but I know personally my family has just been doing simple things, like getting a bunch of groceries. My whole family is educators, so they’ve been trying to reach out to the families in the community and trying to get them food and clean water. That’s the biggest thing right now, just trying to support those families and just the people that weren’t able to get out.”
It has also helped him appreciate what’s in front of him.
“Obviously the way I got to this point, I would never want Crim to get hurt. He’s an amazing ballplayer and just a great guy, one of my closest friends here on the team, but it is next guy up,” Buchanan said. “I’m still trying to battle back and secure and make all the right adjustments, because I’ve been playing on the right side and now I’m at left tackle, but it’s all good. That’s just another part of the preparation phase, and I’m blessed.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.