The tone of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga coach Russ Huesman’s voice said almost as much as his words.
The inflection of his description was filled with a range of emotions, thoughts and feelings. He mixed anger and frustration for the loss with belief and a bit of praise for the comeback attempt.
The smorgasbord is understandable.
His Mocs lost 49-35 to Elon. It was a game in which they could have been blown out after trailing 35-14 at halftime.
Junior quarterback B.J. Coleman threw five interceptions – three were tipped – and senior running back Erroll Wynn lost a fumble, his fourth of the season, on his only carry of the game.
Yet it also was a game the Mocs could have won after tying the score at 35 early in the fourth quarter with momentum and the crowd pushing them to what could have been another unbelievable comeback.
“I’m not putting the blame on our offense; I’m not putting the blame on our defense. I’m putting the blame on our whole football team,” Huesman said. “From me to everybody, all the way across the board.”
But mistakes similar to ones that that put UTC in a hole against the Phoenix were made again in the fourth quarter, resulting in a six-turnover day for the Mocs.
At 35-35, the Mocs’ defense forced a three-and-out. On UTC’s first play, Coleman threw an interception on a screen play that Elon’s Joshua Jones returned for a touchdown.
“They were able to get on the momentum train, even to the point of a guy winning a car on the sideline and the whole stands going wild,” Jones said. “It’s a snowball effect. Once we made a play, we were able to keep the momentum for the rest of the game.”
On UTC’s next snap, defensive end Brandon Ward hit Coleman’s arm, which resulted in an interception by Blake Thompson. He returned it to the UTC 5-yard line. Elon’s A.J. Harris scored a touchdown two snaps later to punctuate his career day.
“It gets 35-35, and if I’m Elon, I’m thinking, ‘Not another time,'” Huesman said. “And we had all the momentum and I thought it was going to be our game.”
It wasn’t.