The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga scout-team offense could be in for a long week. That’s because the Mocs’ defense, which has been shredded the past two games, is going hard in practice the next few days.
Coach Russ Huesman doesn’t like for his players to do much hitting in practice, but after the Mocs gave up 490 yards to Elon and 628 to Auburn, something has to change before UTC hosts Samford in a Southern Conference game Saturday.
“I want to see our guys try to get better fundamentally during the course of practice, and not just say, ‘I got lined up correctly and I took the right steps,'” Huesman said Monday. “There’s going to be more contact; there will be more knee-bend and more chasing the football.”
Defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said that because UTC (5-4, 4-2) has so little depth on defense, practices have probably been a little too soft the past few weeks. In trying to keep everyone fresh, the coaches haven’t pushed the defense to make plays in practice.
“Whether it’s Auburn or Elon, there are plays that we were making earlier in the year that we’re not making right now,” Fuller said. “The only thing you can bring it back to is maybe it’s practice, and maybe we’re not emphasizing it enough and have just kind of let it slide.
“We were trusting the kids to make the play in the game because they were [earlier in the season].”
Fuller said there were eight big plays in the 62-24 loss at Auburn last week in which Mocs “looked like a bad football team.” He said players took poor angles when trying to make stops, and he said that goes back to executing in practice.
“Maybe we haven’t put the pedal down enough about finishing in the practice reps,” Fuller said.
Starting today, the defense will finish off more plays against the scout team, whether that’s making a tackle or going up in the air on pass plays. There’s risk involved in that, Huesman said, but if the Mocs don’t do it then they risk another poor performance that could lead to another loss, which would kill UTC’s chances of making the playoffs.
Samford is 4-5, 2-4 in the league.
UTC-Wofford on TV
The SoCon announced Monday that the Mocs’ Nov. 20 finale at No. 4 Wofford will be televised on SportSouth. The game was scheduled for 1:30 p.m., but kickoff has been moved to 3 for the broadcast.
Before the season, the league left open the final two weeks of the regular-season TV schedule so it could choose “wild card” games with SoCon championship and playoff implications.
Wofford (8-1, 6-0) is the league’s last team without a conference loss and will play at No. 3 Appalachian State (8-1, 6-1) this Saturday, a game also televised on SportSouth.
SoCon honors Sutherland
UTC’s Brian Sutherland was named the SoCon special-teams player of the week Monday following his 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Auburn.
Sutherland, a sophomore wide receiver, had eight returns for 159 yards. He also set career highs with 10 catches for 97 yards and 254 all-purpose yards.
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6268. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeat.