It’s almost eight months before the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team will play another game.
But coach Russ Huesman already is looking forward to the prospects of the 2016 season.
Current UTC commitments
Name – Pos. – Ht., WT. – SchoolQuintin Alibocas – DT – 6-3, 292 – Science Hill (Tenn.)Jonathan Decker – DT – 6-4, 265 – Alcoa (Tenn.)Jalen Harvey – DT – 6-2, 315 – Syracuse/Northwest Mississippi CCJack Keebler – TE/DE – 6-2, 225 – Boyd-Buchanan (Tenn.)Derek Mahaffey – DT – 6-2, 292 – Western Kentucky/East Central CC (Miss.)Brian Marshall – OL – 6-2, 290 – Marietta (Ga.)Joseph Richard – WR – 6-2, 200 – Christ Presbyterian Academy (Tenn.)Thomas Richard – WR – 6-1, 190 – Christ Presbyterian Academy/U. Of MissouriJordan Seals – OL – 6-5, 270 – Morristown East (Tenn.)Cole Strange – DE – 6-5, 255 – Farragut (Tenn.)Zach Weatherly – QB – 6-2, 195 – Christ Presbyterian Academy (Tenn.)
The Mocs are losing some key pieces, but due to the quality of their recruiting over the past two years, they should be in good shape to make a run at a fourth consecutive Southern Conference championship and third straight playoff berth.
The Mocs will return nine starters on offense and seven on defense, along with all of their specialists from a team that finished 9-4 and was ranked No. 8 in one final poll and No. 9 in the other.
“I think we’ve got an excellent team coming back,” Huesman said. “I like our team; I like what we have coming back. We’ve built depth, and there is going to be competitions for some jobs, but I wouldn’t expect us to be anything but good.”
There are 11 players committed to the 2016 signing class and hopes of one or two more before signing day. The program lost assistants Will Healy, Marcus West and Carter Crutchfield to Austin Peay, but there is no imminent threat of current commitments changing their minds or exploring other options, aside from the possibility of offers from Football Bowl Subdivision programs.
“You hope that people choose Chattanooga based on what we have to offer and how we’ve been playing,” Huesman said. “The players have built relationships with everyone on staff and have built relationships with them, so it wasn’t a culture shock to the recruits (when Healy and West left). They were fine; they still love Chattanooga; they were excited.
“That’s kind of been the overall consensus – that coaches come and go – so there were no hiccups in transition. We reassigned some coaches and re-established some relationships, so there weren’t any issues.”
Huesman said Tuesday that decisions will be made soon as to the replacements of Healy, the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator, and West, the defensive line coach. Those two were big in helping the program achieve back-to-back recruiting classes that were ranked No. 1 in the Football Championship Subdivision rankings.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.