COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — A week after starting off slow in the season opener at Memphis, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team had a bit of déjà vu in week two, losing 45-17 at Tennessee Tech after falling behind 31-3.
And yet it didn’t necessarily have to be that way for the Mocs, who are 0-2 for the second season in a row, this time after following their visit to a higher-level Football Bowl Subdivision member holding power conference aspirations with a trip to a fellow Football Championship Subdivision program that’s currently in the national rankings.
On the Golden Eagles’ first drive, the Mocs had the perfect pass coverage to defend against quarterback Kekoa Visperas, who threw the ball right at UTC defensive end Marquise Freeman. The senior dropped the potential interception, though, giving the home team new life — and four plays later, the Golden Eagles cashed in with a touchdown.
Would the sudden change of possession have made a difference? Maybe, but it didn’t happen and the game quickly spiraled out of control with a defense that couldn’t stop Tennessee Tech and an offense that didn’t do a good job of executing.
Tennessee Tech (2-0) is nationally ranked in both FCS polls listed by the NCAA (No. 17 in the Stats Perform Top 25, No. 20 in the coaches poll), while the Mocs received votes in both this past week.
“We’re not good enough — and I knew it going into all these early games — to where we’ve got things right and things have to happen and they don’t,” said Rusty Wright, who began this season, his seventh as head coach at his alma mater, with a team bearing little resemblance to the 2024 Mocs due to major turnover on the roster.
“We saw it out there today,” Wright continued. “We’re not physically strong enough to handle some things, and we’re not mentally tough enough to handle some things, so we’ve got to do things right consistently. We don’t do that.”
Tennessee Tech, which is in its final school year as an Ohio Valley Conference member before joining UTC in the Southern Conference, ended a four-game losing streak in the series with the Mocs as the teams met for the first time since 2018. UTC leads the overall series 30-11.
The notable defensive performances for the Golden Eagles included senior linebacker Aaron Swafford, a former Meigs County High School standout, totaling three tackles (one for loss) with a forced fumble, a pass breakup and a quarterback hurry.
The Mocs trailed 24-3 at halftime, despite holding a 2-0 advantage in turnover margin, due to an ability to move the ball on offense. The Golden Eagles held a 284-63 advantage in yards, with the Mocs not having any answers on how to get yards or how to stop their hosts from getting them.
By the time the Golden Eagles punted for the first time, 8:05 remained in the third quarter and they led 31-3. UTC had punted four times by then, including one by Heath Jehu that was fumbled by Tennessee Tech and recovered by UTC freshman Jaden Nelson, resulting in the Mocs’ lone first-half points as Jude Kelley kicked a 36-yard field goal on the ensuing possession.
“I think we just have to emphasize coming out strong every single time,” said junior safety Khari Gee, who had an interception and five tackles. “As a defense, we started out slow, but then we started playing faster in the second half. But we just have to emphasize coming out strong and getting everybody on the same page.”
UTC’s offense finally made some progress in the second half, with quarterback Camden Orth — who passed for 249 yards to surpass 3,000 in a career that included stops at Long Island University and Bowling Green before he transferred to UTC this year — finding Markell Quick on a screen pass that Quick took 33 yards for a score. Late in the game, the Mocs put together a 14-play, 72-yard drive that ended in Ryan Ingram’s 1-yard touchdown run.
Josh Williams had a team-high six catches, covering 60 yards, and Quick had 94 yards on his five receptions, but after some rushing success against Memphis, the Mocs finished with just 25 yards on 28 carries.
“We just have to execute,” Orth said. “We’re getting the right calls, we’re getting the right looks, we just have to execute. A lot of it starts with me, obviously I have the ball in my hands every single play. Making the right throws, making the right reads every single time is going to be key for us to keep it going forward, and we’ve got to establish a little bit more of a run game next game, but the majority of it falls on myself.
“I know I haven’t done a very good job in the last two games. You see spurts where we do what we’re supposed to do — we don’t shoot ourselves in the foot and we look great, so that’s what we need, to do it on a consistent basis. Once we do that, you’ll start seeing good things happen.”
Early in the 2025 season, execution is a key selling point for UTC. The mainstays who had become the resonating voices in the locker room are no longer with the program, having either graduated or transferred. Eventually, new voices are going to emerge — or at least they will need to in order for the Mocs to get things headed in the right direction.
The Mocs play their home opener next Saturday as Stetson visits Finley Stadium for a 6 p.m. kickoff. After that is a trip to Texas to face Tarleton State, which is currently in the top five in both FCS polls, followed by the eight-game SoCon gauntlet that begins with a visit from The Citadel on Sept. 27.
There is plenty of time to make a run at the program’s second postseason appearance in three years after missing out on at-large berth in the 24-team bracket last season, but there is also plenty of work to do.
“I’m going to find out,” Wright said of who will pick up the leadership slack. “I’m going to find out who shows up on Monday, and we’re going to get it figured out.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.