As could be expected of a team with a lot of new pieces in new positions in a new scheme, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga had a fair share of defensive mishaps in Saturday’s season-opening loss against fifth-ranked Jacksonville State.
Any time the Mocs did make a defensive mistake against the Gamecocks, it was exposed, such as the 76-yard touchdown run by Roc Thomas in the first quarter or the 59-yard touchdown pass from Bryant Horn to a wide-open Shaq Davidson when corner Trevor Wright slipped at the line of scrimmage.
For the most part, the Mocs did a good job defensively. Thomas’s 18 other carries gained 46 yards. Horn completed 14 passes for only 182 yards, with two of the completions – Davidson’s catch and run and a 48-yard screen pass to Thomas – gaining 107 yards. The other 12 completions netted 75 yards.
“I am proud of the way our defense fought through the entire game,” UTC head coach Tom Arth said Saturday. “With the exception of a couple of plays, we played very well on that side of the ball.”
For first-timers at the position, it appears that Tae Davis and Tavon Lawson settled in nicely at linebacker. They combined for 22 tackles in Saturday’s 27-13 loss in the Football Championship Subdivision Kickoff Classic in Montgomery, Ala. Lawson’s 14 stops (10 unassisted) were a career high, as were Davis’s eight.
Both are converted safeties, although Lawson spent some time working with the linebacker group last season under former head coach Russ Huesman.
“I was so pleased with Tae and Tavon,” Arth said. “Those are two guys who have never played linebacker before … never played behind the ball. That’s a big challenge to do that, and they have both been exceptional in how quickly they’ve learned how to play the position. They give us so much athleticism, and that’s so important to how we play defense.”
But there’s still plenty to work on and get better on, which Arth called “exciting” after the game. He told the players they needed to start feeding off each other – one of many things that will have to improve in the next two weeks before the Sept. 9 game at LSU and the following week against UT-Martin in the home opener.
“The defense would get pumped when the defense made plays, and the offense got pumped when the offense made plays,” Lawson said, suggesting that the units need to do more cheering for each other. “It’s stuff we’ll get better at: We’ll watch film, practice the little things and we’ll get better on what we messed up on.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.