The Times Free Press is taking a daily positional look at the 2018 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team, leading up to its first practice on Aug. 1. Today, we look at the defensive backs:
Talent returning
The Mocs have tons of talent and experience returning in the defensive backfield. Five players – C.J. Fritz, Kareem Orr, Jerrell Lawson, Rashun Freeman and D.J. Jackson – started at least one game last season. Lawson finished with 39 tackles, earning Southern Conference all-freshman honors. Brandon Dowdell played a lot of minutes as a true freshman and joined Lawson on the all-freshman team and junior Cameron Turner and redshirt freshman Jabril Malone are expected to contribute this season. The returning pieces helped the Mocs rank fifth in the SoCon in pass efficiency defense (133.6), giving up the fewest yards per game (163.2) in the league.
Talent coming in
If the talent returning wasn’t enough, the coaching staff brought in even more pieces to compete. Florida International graduate transfer Andrew Brown had 14 starts in two seasons with the program. A pair of freshmen – Boyd-Buchanan product Kohl Henke and Texas athlete CaMiron Smith – could contribute, although it’s more likely they redshirt. Smith is an elite athlete, having won four state championships in track and finishing second in another meet in addition to his football talent.