Drae Bowles, left, receives information from assistant coach Will Healy Friday on the first day Mocs spring football practice.Route ’15: Why not? In the era of the quarterback, the Mocs have a two-time Southern Conference player of the year at the position in Jacob Huesman, a bevy of options at receiver, experience at running back and one of the best starting offensive lines in the conference. On defense, there’s experience in all three position groups, with four returning starters in the secondary, Nakevion Leslie and A.J. Hampton at linebacker and Keionta Davis and Josh Freeman on the line. Kicker Henrique Ribeiro was 16-for-22 on field-goal tries last season. The team was hungry for a trip to the NCAA playoffs last year; this season’s team wants a championship.
Caution ahead: The Mocs will have a starting lineup on both sides of the ball that can compete with anybody in the Football Championship Subdivision. But there are questions about depth on both lines. A season ago, the offensive line lost preseason all-conference selection Synjen Herren during training camp, and it took a while for the Mocs to figure out the right combination up front. Could the unit survive a similar situation this year? The defensive line lost three starters from a year ago and a fourth player – Derrick Lott – who has been in the Tennessee Titans’ training camp. Davis and Freeman have solidified two of the four positions, but will another playmaker emerge?
Winding road: The Mocs picked up five FBS transfers during the offseason: receiver Drae Bowles and defensive lineman Justin King from Tennessee, offensive lineman Hunter Kennedy and tight end Steve Pickren from Alabama-Birmingham and offensive lineman Josh Cardiello, a former Georgia Bulldog who is expected to start. Receivers Dejuan McQuarters, Bingo Morton and Wil Young, all redshirted as freshmen in 2014, will get the opportunity to show what they can do, and running backs Kyle Nalls and Alex Trotter could be expected to contribute as true freshman.
On the horizon: For the second consecutive season, the home opener against Jacksonville State is expected to have huge playoff implications. A UTC win would help the Mocs in potential playoff seeding, also helping their case for an at-large bid if they don’t win the SoCon title. It also would give UTC a top-10 win for the first time since a 30-27 defeat of Appalachian State on Oct. 28, 2000. Two weeks later, the Mocs travel to Samford for a huge test against one of the top contenders for the conference championship. There also are road trips to Wofford and VMI and home games against Furman and Western Carolina – another of the top SoCon contenders.
Road to success: The Mocs will defeat Jacksonville State in the season opener and use that momentum to push themselves to a 10-1 regular season, which would mean no less than a top-five seed in the playoffs. Three wins will put them in the national championship game in Frisco, Texas, where QB Huesman will have a chance to atone for the ending of his high school career at Baylor School in 2010, when the rule of simultaneous possession stripped him of an interception with 7.8 seconds to play and awarded the ball to an Ensworth receiver, resulting in a 28-21 Ensworth win in the Division II-AA state-title game.