TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – If the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team winds up having some success in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, the Mocs can look back to Saturday as the springboard.
Coming off a lackluster four-game stretch, the Mocs led Football Bowl Subdivision top-ranked Alabama for a quarter before the Crimson Tide got on the board. The home team then took advantage of a UTC miscue to add to its lead before manufacturing some second-half points on its way to a 31-3 victory in front of 101,821 at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
The Mocs (8-3) find out their playoff fate this morning. Alabama (11-0) hosts Auburn on Saturday.
Alabama coach Nick Saban had called UTC’s defense “an SEC defense” this past week, and the Mocs played like it. The Tide finished with 332 yards of total offense, their second-lowest output of the season (to 323 against LSU), and the Mocs had three sacks, which tied Texas A&M for the most Alabama has allowed in a game all season.
Alabama led 14-3 at halftime and had only 145 yards of total offense. One of its first-half touchdowns came on a four-play, 9-yard drive after UTC’s C.J. Board muffed a punt.