If Ryan Merklinger ever had the dream of being a quarterback, those dreams were dashed in one game during his high school career.
While a junior at Calvary Day School, a play was run for the now 6-foot-4, 319-pound University of Tennessee at Chattanooga offensive lineman to throw a pass. Unfortunately, that pass was intercepted, but luckily for both him and the program, the Merklinger/quarterback legacy was salvaged when Ryan’s little brother Jake took over as signal caller a year later.
The younger Merklinger is currently at the University of Tennessee competing for the starting quarterback position, while Ryan has just had to accept being a multi-year starter and all-conference performer during his career.
“I can always say that I was technically the first high school quarterback in the family,” Ryan joked.
It isn’t likely that Ryan will ever get the chance to make up for that lost opportunity back in 2019, but it’s also not why UTC recruited the former Western Illinois standout with 34 career starts on his resume heading into his final season in Chattanooga. The Mocs needed to do something after a 2024 season in which it averaged just 3.4 yards per carry on the ground and had six games of less than 85 yards rushing, and it didn’t help that the line lost Dave Monnot III to graduation, Football Championship Subdivision Rimington Trophy winner Reid Williams to UNLV, primary starting left tackle Almarion Crim to South Dakota and starting right guard Bryce Goodner to retirement.
Merklinger was brought in to be a leader for the revamped unit, and according to offensive line coach Kevin Revis, he’s doing just that.
“Anytime you can get a guy that’s played as much as he has and has as much experience as he has, when you’re talking about the portal and you’re trying to replace the attrition, that’s huge,” Revis said. “But more than anything, bringing in a guy that is the type of dude he is is unbelievable. (He’s) the guy that can come in and instantly be the example of how you want guys to handle their business and how you want them to lead the teammates and how you want them to practice hard, how you want them to just be a dude in the room.
“He’s a huge addition. He’s not perfect by any stretch. He’s still growing in leadership, but adding a piece that is a good player but also a great person and a great teammate and a great O-line room member has been pretty good.”
It was an easy sell to get Merklinger much closer to home, which is probably also a welcome site for his parents Jeremy and Kim, who now have much easier trips to see their sons who now play 90 minutes away from each other.
“There’s a culture that is kind of known around the Southeast. When you come to Chattanooga, you’re going to win and Coach (Rusty) Wright has created a culture that permeates everywhere,” Ryan said. “It’s not just like, ‘Oh, sometimes they’re good. Sometimes they’re bad,’ they’re the same football team no matter who’s there because of our head coach and our coaches. That’s really what drew me here, the culture of winning.
“That’s the standard and the expectation and that’s what I wanted for my last year. I’m going into my fourth year starting, so I think it’s really good to bring some experience, some leadership. They lost a couple of really good players to the portal and it’s really hard to figure how to retool as a group and figure out who’s going to be the new…alpha you could say. That may or may not be me, but I am going to come in and give my best every day and try to lead by example.”
Merklinger has experience as both a center and as a tackle, but has primarily been working at the right tackle position vacated by Monnot. With Tyrell Ragland potentially moving from left guard to right guard, former Red Bank standout B.J. Ragland taking over at center and sophomores Aidan Donald and Nick Paul potentially sliding in at left tackle and left guard, respectively, all five positions could be manned by new players when the Mocs travel to face Memphis on Aug. 30 in the season opener.
Not a bad spot for a former high school quarterback to come in and help leave his lasting mark in college.
“It may not be the prettiest when it’s all said and done, but Ryan knows how to get it done,” Wright said. “That was the biggest thing we were looking for in the transfer portal and luckily we found it. It’s huge for those guys up front; he’s actually changed his body a little bit in the short amount of time he’s been with us. He’s lost some weight and is moving a little better.
“Hopefully that’ll help him have a pretty good year.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.
