Throughout the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 2021 football season, Times Free Press UTC beat writer Gene Henley will list three major takeaways from each game.
Here are his thoughts after the Mocs’ 30-20 season-opening loss to Austin Peay on Thursday night at Finley Stadium, a matchup of nationally ranked teams in the Football Championship Subdivision.
The Mocs can’t win without better quarterback play: Despite being a sixth-year senior, Drayton Arnold made just the sixth start of his collegiate career, and it was only his 11th appearance in a college game. The other two players who seriously contended for the starting role entering the opener were junior Cole Copeland, who has played in eight games (although only two since 2017), and sophomore Robert Riddle, an offseason transfer who played in 11 games at Mercer after redshirting in 2017.
One of those three has to be the answer, because in the current state of college football, a good quarterback lightens the load on everyone else. If he’s a true threat throwing, opponents have to respect the passing game (which Austin Peay’s defense quit doing as Thursday’s game wore on), and that opens up holes to run the ball, which is what UTC likes to do in an attempt to play complementary football. Having a quarterback who can keep the offense moving also makes life easier on the defense by giving those players time to rest, and that would have helped UTC when the Governors started going with an up-tempo offense in the second half.
Arnold has been up and down since his first start against Western Kentucky last fall, with Thursday the third time in his six starts he has completed fewer than half of his passes. The Mocs are 1-2 in those games, with the exception a 20-18 road win over Furman this spring, and Copeland entered in relief that day. Arnold was 2-for-8 on third down against the Govs, and he overthrew multiple receivers, including Tyler “Smoke” Smith on a deep route that would have been a touchdown if on target. That’s just not going to cut it.