The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team lost two players this week: left guard Austin Wilson and linebacker D’Eddric Williams. Both players decided to quit the team for very different reasons, Mocs coach Russ Huesman said.
Wilson, who had started UTC’s past 19 games and would have been a fifth-year senior, is ending his playing career early to get into the job market. He is graduating this spring, and an internship at Unum evolved into a full-time position.
“He was going to come back for grad school and do that, and the opportunity he got was too good to pass up,” Huesman said. “Can’t blame him for that. … It was hard for him to come to my office, and it was hard because he felt like he was letting us down, but what can you say? That’s what you go to college for is to get a good job.
“He gave us four great years, he was a joy to be around and I shook his hand and wished him the best of luck.”
Williams, meanwhile, is ending his UTC football career after a few practices this spring. An Alabama Class 6A all-state linebacker at Tuscaloosa’s Hillcrest High School in 2011, he enrolled at UTC in January.