JACKSONVILLE, Ala. – If University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman had his way, the Mocs would play Jacksonville State every season.
“When I first got here, I said that this should be a great rivalry,” UTC’s second-year coach said this past week. “I said we should play them every year, no matter what.”
Gamecocks coach Jack Crowe feels the same way.
“I can’t think of a reason not to do it,” Crowe said.
Saturday night’s game at JSU Stadium was the 35th meeting in a series that dates back to 1904, and the sixth game in the past seven years.
The series began with an offensively challenged 5-0 win by UTC, which was Chattanooga University at the time. Jacksonville State was then known as Alabama Normal.
The two teams will play again next season, at Finley Stadium, before wrapping up the current contract at JSU in 2012. UTC senior associate athletic director Matt Pope said both sides would like to continue playing for at least two more years after that, but nothing has been put in writing yet.
“I think this is one you should schedule every year and keep going because of how close it is, where their program is, and I just think it’s a good one,” Huesman said.
Crowe said he likes the series because it’s “a good, early rivalry game to point to. I hope everybody else sees the value in it.”
The game also makes sense economically. The Mocs drove down for the game around 1:15 p.m. Saturday, saving them the expense of spending the night on the road as they did last season when they played Presbyterian in a nonconference game against a fellow FCS program.
The Gamecocks also travel the day of the game when they visit UTC.
“It’s like playing a home game every year and swapping crowds,” Crowe said.
Jacksonville State and UTC also share a lot of the same recruiting base, especially the Atlanta area. The Mocs have three players from Alabama on their roster: safety Jordan Tippit, tight end Louis Gibson and wide receiver Jarrett Burns. All three are from Huntsville.
Huesman said he would like for the annual UTC-JSU meeting to be a real rivalry game, but the Mocs have to hold up their end of the deal for that to happen. The Gamecocks had won four of the last five meetings, by an average of 22.5 points, heading into Saturday’s meeting – the 35th between the programs located about 110 miles apart.
“I’m not real sure if right now it’s the heated rivalry that you would expect, that hopefully it becomes down the road,” Huesman said. “We’ve got to get better before it becomes a rivalry.”
Contact John Frierson at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6268.