Jonathan Cook has his Saturday attire all ready. There’s the official Mocs football jersey that carries the autographs of former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga stars B.J. Coleman, Blue Cooper and Gunner Miller. There’s the lucky UTC T-shirt and sweatshirt he intends to wear under that jersey, just as he does almost every game day.
The one thing that won’t be the same when he exits his residence in Irving, Texas, around 9:15 EST that morning to begin his 183-mile drive to Huntsville, Texas, to watch his mighty Mocs face Sam Houston State in the second round of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs at 3 p.m. (EST) will be his pregame meal.
“I usually get the nachos supreme plate from Freebirds World Burrito,” he wrote in a Tuesday email. “But this time it will have to be something in Huntsville.”
Every school has its loyal fans. And UTC hopes many, many more Moc Maniacs than Cook will show up in Huntsville to cheer the Mocs to victory against the fifth-seeded Bearkats, who are the only undefeated team (11-0) in the playoffs.
But unlike many Chattanooga natives who consider the Mocs their No. 1 rooting interest, Cook grew up a Tennessee Volunteers fan. And he had at least one fairly big reason for such loyalties beyond his state of residence: His grandfather, Jack Macmillian Armstrong, played for Gen. Robert Neyland from 1946 to 1948.