Coming off a disappointing showing in last weekend’s close loss to Western Carolina, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s rushing attack needed a get-back game in the Mocs’ second straight road trip.
They got just that Saturday afternoon.
Led by 100-yard rushing performances from Reggie Davis and Justus Durant, the Mocs kept alive their hopes of reaching the Football Championship playoffs with a 31-7 win over the The Citadel at Johnson-Hagood Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.
The Mocs, who are ranked 23rd in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25, improved to 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the Southern Conference while dropping the Bulldogs to 4-6 and 2-5. UTC will play its final scheduled home game of 2024 next Saturday, when Samford (3-6, 2-3) visits Finley Stadium for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff, and the Mocs will complete their regular season on Nov. 23 at Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee.
The Mocs won last season’s game against The Citadel 48-3 in Chattanooga, but road games against the Bulldogs have historically been a matter of concern for UTC. Not this time, though: Saturday’s 24-point margin of victory is the largest for the Mocs in Charleston since a 42-7 win on Oct. 18, 1986.
Davis, a redshirt junior, led the way with 115 rushing yards on 18 carries. Durant, an offseason transfer from NCAA Division II member Shorter University, finished with 103 yards on 16 carries, including two scores, in the junior’s best game yet for the Mocs. UTC’s ground total of 246 yards is its second-best performance of the season, as well as the second-most rushing yards allowed by the Bulldogs this year.
It was important for an offense that was limited to just 58 yards on the ground a week earlier in a 38-34 loss to Western Carolina that largely derailed the preseason SoCon title favorites’ hopes of winning their first conference championship since a shared crown 2015.
“It was great,” Durant said on the postgame radio broadcast. “We put this game plan in all week long, and we came in and executed.”
Sixth-year head coach Rusty Wright wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Those are things we have to be able to do,” Wright said. “We have to be able to run the football, and we have to be able to play defense, and we’ve got to throw it a little better at times and make better decisions at times. But that’s part of growth, and hopefully we’ll learn.”
UTC quarterback Luke Schomburg, making his fifth career start and second straight with sixth-year senior and regular starter Chase Artopoeus out due to injury again, was efficient. The 6-foot-3, 194-pound redshirt sophomore from Huntsville, Alabama, threw for 131 yards and a pair of touchdowns, one a 35-yard strike to Chris Domercant on a slant route and the other on a shovel pass to Javin Whatley, who scooted 16 yards for the score.
Schomburg finished just 8-for-15 passing, but he did not turn the ball over a week after being intercepted three times by the Catamounts, including near the end of the game after the Mocs were driving for a go-ahead touchdown.
Both of his touchdown tosses against The Citadel came in the first half, helping the Mocs build a 14-0 lead at the break. UTC came out slow in the third quarter, though, with a couple of bad penalties on its first possession negating big plays and leading to a punt. Two plays later, The Citadel’s Cooper Wallace stepped through a tackle and sprinted 50 yards for the score.
The Bulldogs then executed an onside kick perfectly, but the Mocs forced a punt. UTC wasn’t able to do much with the ball, but on The Citadel’s ensuing possession, UTC linebacker Alex Mitchell — who led the team with 10 tackles — forced and recovered a fumble, which led to a Jude Kelley field goal that pushed the lead back to 17-7.
The Mocs then fell on another fumble after a bad exchange, and on the first play of the resulting possession, Durant ran 32 yards to the end zone for his fourth touchdown of the year.
He would score again in the fourth quarter, capping a 41-yard, five-play drive.
The Mocs forced three turnovers (former Tyner standout Jeremiah Batiste had an interception) and limited their hosts to 277 yards on 53 offensive plays. Of those yards, more than a third (99) came on two plays: Johnathan Bennett’s 49-yard run on the first snap of the game and Wallace’s touchdown.
“We don’t ride momentum,” UTC senior defensive end Quay Wiggles said. “We carry it our own way, so no matter what happens, we know at the end of the day we’ve got to go out there and do our job and get the ball back to the offense.”
In other pertinent results around the SoCon, Mercer rolled 34-0 at one-win Virginia Military Institute to improve to 9-1 overall and 6-1 in league games, while Western Carolina lost 24-21 at East Tennessee State University, with the Catamounts falling to 5-5 and 4-2 as the Buccaneers improved to 6-4, 4-2. Mercer has clinched at least a share of the SoCon title, but others in the league remain hopeful of spots in the 24-team field for the FCS postseason.
UTC is one of those hopeful teams, and the Mocs know going 2-0 to close the regular season is the best thing — the only thing — they can do to extend their schedule to a 13th game.
“You put yourself in position, you’ve got to win football games,” Wright said. “You all told me a month ago they’re all big games at some point in time, so I promise you we’re going to give it all we’ve got. These kids are going to play their tails off, and it sure will be good to be home next week.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.