UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman gets ready to hand off to Marquis Green during a recent scrimmage. The Mocs have made progress in the spread offense directed by new coordinator Jeff Durden.Last season was the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team’s first at running the spread offense full time. The Mocs under then-offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield weren’t exactly wearing training wheels, but they weren’t running wild in a complex scheme, either.
Satterfield’s background was running a pro-style offense, and he was learning on the fly at times.
“Since it was Coach Satterfield’s first year running that, I think it was kind of an experimental year,” said quarterback Jacob Huesman, who started 10 games as a freshman in 2012.
In December, Satterfield left to be the offensive coordinator at Temple University. Head coach Russ Huesman went looking for a coach with spread experience and found one in Jeff Durden, who had a lot of success with the spread during his nine-year run as James Madison’s coordinator.
As the Mocs wrap up spring practice — Monday’s was the 13th of 15 allowed workouts — Durden said the offense is “on schedule.” A lot of the basics have been implemented, but there’s still plenty to his system that will be installed before UTC opens the 2013 season against UT-Martin on Aug. 29.