For University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fans, Friday was a day that was going to come eventually.
Maybe it would have been 2019. Perhaps 2020, but no later than 2021.
But at some point, football coach Tom Arth was going to get poached away by some larger program. Anybody who presents his level of intellect and coaching acumen will receive opportunities, so no one should have been surprised when it came out that Arth – just finishing his second season at UTC – was leaving to become the head coach at the University of Akron.
It could have been an easy decision. Arth is from nearby Westlake, Ohio. He played at nearby John Carroll, where he also received his first head coaching job after playing professional football and had national-level success.
But where it gets dicey is in the details. The early signing period is Wednesday through next Friday, and Arth as well as his UTC assistants spent last weekend hosting recruits on campus in hopes of getting some players committed for next season – expected to be a promising one for the Mocs with a bevy of talent returning.