There were some good moments and quite a few head-scratchers during the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team’s 82-play scrimmage Saturday at Finley Stadium.
In their first scrimmage of spring drills, the Mocs had three fumbles in their first 20 plays and several later. Whether through mishandled snaps, botched handoffs or strips by the defense, the ball was on the ground way too often, coach Russ Huesman said.
“We’re not going to win football games with the ball on the ground,” he said. “We’ve got issues. We’ve got to get back to securing the football.”
Most of the fumbles occurred with second- and third-string offensive players on the field. The inexperienced reserves on both sides of the ball played as much as the first-unit Mocs in the scrimmage, which had few drives and a lot of situational series, such as third-and-long and inside the 10-yard line.
Overall, the Mocs’ defense, which has a lot of newcomers, was solid throughout. The only returning starter at linebacker, and the only player with meaningful game experience, is Ryan Consiglio. Starting beside him Saturday were redshirt freshman Shane Heatherly, who primarily played on special teams last season, and former East Ridge standout Gunner Miller, who redshirted as a freshman last season.
“I feel like there’s a lot of things we can improve on, a lot of things I can improve on, but overall it was a pretty good day,” Heatherly said.
Defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said he saw a lot of mistakes, which was to be expected in the first scrimmage, but “I thought our kids attacked, which is always good to see.”
The offense didn’t show its full arsenal, seldom throwing the ball deep. The longest pass plays were a 26-yard touchdown connection from quarterback B.J. Coleman to tight end Garrett Hughes and screen passes to Chris Awuah and Erroll Wynn that the running backs turned into big gains.
“We were really focusing on the run game and the screen game,” said Coleman, who was 7-for-16 for 102 yards and four touchdowns. “That’s stuff that we’ve got to get better at.”
The offense was at its best near the goal line. Coleman hit 6-foot-5 freshman Marlon Anthony for two touchdowns, one with Anthony running across of the middle of the end zone and the other on a lob into the right corner against 5-9 backup cornerback Robert Harrison.
On the two lob passes to the left corner, when Anthony was covered by first-team All-Southern Conference corner Buster Skrine, the offense came up empty.
Wynn, who had nine carries for 28 yards, scored on a 5-yard run, plowing through the middle of the defense. Reserve running back Randall Toney (4 carries, 27 yards) scored on two short runs and Coleman passed to wideout Joel Bradford for a 7-yard score.
Awuah finished with 40 yards on 10 carries and had a 34-yard reception. Linebacker Thomas Green and Skrine had five tackles each, while defensive end Chris Donald and Consiglio made four stops each.
The Mocs are off today and will resume practice Monday.