UTC’s Lucas Webb celebrates his interception and resulting touchdown in the game against Furman at Finley Stadium on Saturday, October 10, 2015.At the end of Tuesday’s practice at Scrappy Moore Field, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman looked at his players – some in front of him, others behind him in ice tubs – and reminded each of them about a streak of futility nobody on the team wants to remember.
“We need to win this first game,” Huesman said. “It’s been seven years since we’ve won the first one.”
Seven years, indeed.
The Mocs, ranked sixth in NCAA Division I’s Football Championship Subdivision, will try to end that streak of season-opening losses when they face Division II member Shorter University at 7 tonight at Finley Stadium. A concert by up-and-coming country music singer Dylan Scott will precede the game at 5 p.m. at the First Tennessee Pavilion.
It’s not as though the Mocs have had bad losses in their openers. They won the first game of the Huesman coaching era at UTC, 30-13 over Glenville State in 2009. Since then, they’ve lost 42-41 to then-FCS third-ranked Appalachian State, 40-7 to Football Bowl Subdivision 10th-ranked Nebraska, 34-13 to South Florida, 31-21 to UT-Martin, 20-16 to Central Michigan and 23-20 last year to seventh-ranked Jacksonville State in a battle of top-10 FCS programs.