Pressure? How could the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football Mocs not have felt pressure to claim at least a share of their third straight Southern Conference championship when they took the Finley Stadium field against The Citadel on Saturday afternoon?
Lose to the Bulldogs and the football Mocs could somewhat reasonably have been viewed as the slackers of the entire UTC athletic department.
After all, the men’s basketball team already had won in overtime at Georgia on Friday night after losing by more than 30 points to the Bulldogs each of the past two seasons. The women’s team had done what it does better than almost any women’s program anywhere not named Connecticut, taking it to McNeese State on the same night.
Then there was that UTC volleyball team earning at least a share of its first SoCon title since 1998 on Friday afternoon with one of the most shocking, delightful, awe-inspiring comebacks in school history at East Tennessee State. Down 11-1 and 14-4 in the deciding fifth set – where the first team to 15 points and ahead by two wins – the Mocs somehow prevailed.
Finally, as if all that excellence wasn’t enough to make every Mocs Maniac proud, UTC junior Teghan Henderson was named to the all-region team after sparking the women’s cross country to a 12th-place finish in the NCAA South Region meet on Friday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“We have a saying around here among our different teams,” UTC junior wide receiver C.J. Board said. “We all fly together. So, yeah, we didn’t want to mess that up.”
They didn’t. In a game that was not nearly so close as the final score, the Mocs won 31-23, at least partly because Board caught five passes for 116 yards. They also won because senior quarterback Jacob Huesman, the coach’s son, gave his mom, Amy, the only gift she asked for while celebrating her brithday on his senior day.
“A win,” she said. “That’s all I wanted. Now, if they hadn’t won .”
It’s mind-boggling, really, this sudden bit of Mocs Magic. Despite microscopic budgets and generally spartan facilities and a fan base that usually lacks in numbers what it makes up for in loyalty and love – though Saturday’s crowd of 11,594 at Finley was reportedly the second-largest November home crowd in school history – they’re all producing the kind of results for athletic director David Blackburn that should soon punch his ticket to a Power Five Conference job, should the Tennessee native one day decide to chase the money.
“It’s certainly been an unbelievable weekend,” Blackburn said from the Finley Stadium press box as the UTC band played the alma mater and more than one fan in the stands shouted “Three!” in reference to the three straight SoCon football crowns owned by the Mocs.
“I just see how all our coaches in all our sports interact with their players. How they recruit quality kids who want to win in the classroom as much as they do on the field. We aren’t perfect. No one is. But we’re trying to do this the right way. We talk all the time about doing better today than yesterday and doing better tomorrow than today. Our coaches and players are doing pretty well right now.”
Football coach Russ Huesman was understandably excited about his third straight SoCon title, a championship – though officially shared with The Citadel – that hands the Mocs the league’s automatic bid to the FCS playoffs because UTC won the head-to-head matchup with the Bulldogs.
“I’m proud of our guys,” he said. “This has been a hard year. Everybody’s gunning for you. You worry about complacency setting in. But we played well. And we got through senior day. Not one person was crying out there.”
But he also said this, which may speak to the quality of UTC’s coaches as people as much as to their obvious coaching skills.
“That’s a really good football team,” he said of the Bulldogs. “They deserve to be co-champions. And their coach, Mike Houston, deserves to be coach of the year.”
But just in case you want another reason to admire Huesman, consider the man he had speak to his team before the night before the game. Mark “Preach” Miller lost the use of his left eye when an IED went off in Iraq. An ordained minister, the former soldier emailed Huesman last week to tell the coach he was available if he ever needed help of any kind.
“After hearing all he’s been through,” Huesman said, “I’m pretty sure most of our kids know they’ve had pretty great lives.”
Added Board when asked about the war veteran’s words: “He said, ‘You fight for the brother next to you.’ It was an awesome talk. It really changes your perspective.”
The horror of Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris should put every freedom we have in this country in a new perspective, as well remind us of the need for every citizen to be vigilant every day regarding the world around them.
But viewed as entertainment, as an escape from the real-life nightmares that too often find us, sports also does much good, or at least brings good feelings to the winners.
“I was going crazy when the (men’s basketball team) won in overtime,” Coach Huesman said. “And I was proud of our women winning. But that volleyball team. That was unbelievable. That was extraordinary. They never gave up. They never quit.”
And so they’re all flying together, atop the Southern Conference, making UTC athletics better today than yesterday, and, if such a thing be possible, even better tomorrow than today.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.