SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Darrell Bridges said the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team is “angry.”
“This team is hungry for a win,” the senior running back said after the Mocs’ 24-21 double-overtime loss Saturday at eighth-ranked Wofford. “We want to come out and display what we should have been displaying all year.”
This year has been almost a polar opposite from the Mocs’ 2016 season. Last year, aided by a comparatively easy September schedule, UTC started 6-0 but lost four of its final seven games. This season – Tom Arth’s first as head coach – started off 0-3, became 1-6 and now stands at 2-8.
Seven of the Mocs’ losses this season have occurred against teams that have spent at least one week ranked nationally, with five (Jacksonville State, Western Carolina, Furman, Samford and Wofford) currently residing in one of the Football Championship Subdivision Top 25 polls and two others (LSU of the Football Bowl Subdivision and The Citadel) receiving votes in a national poll. But while the Mocs’ schedule hasn’t been easy this year, expectations around the program have not changed and won’t anytime soon.
And in their past three games, the turnaround UTC players and coaches have talked about for a while finally started to occur.