When Karin Boeck broke the news to her son that he had just recorded 15 tackles in Saturday’s 60-36 win over Western Carolina, Ty Boeck was caught off guard.
“I was a little shocked,” the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga sophomore linebacker said. “Whew, that’s a lot, but the way our defense is set up, the linebackers are supposed to make a lot of tackles. I still had a few missed tackles, so I still need to get better.”
Made a starter after Kam Jones was injured in the Mocs’ opening-game win over Eastern Illinois, Boeck has responded with 35 tackles in four starts and leads the team with 41.
Though the Soddy-Daisy High School graduate may have surprised himself, his production hasn’t caught head coach Rusty Wright off guard.
“What he’s done doesn’t surprise me,” Wright said Tuesday. “The more that young man plays, the better he will be in there. He’s getting more comfortable. He’s a smart guy in the classroom and on the football field, so he understands how things work.”
If there is a surprising aspect to Boeck’s quick rise, it’s in how quickly he has grasped the intricacies of playing inside linebacker. In UTC’s scheme the inside linebackers must read and react quickly while at the same time making sure the linemen are in the right position.
“It’s hard,” Wright said. “People think just go play linebacker and tackle the ball. It’s not that easy. You have to see movement in front of you. You have to understand blocking schemes and angles and where the back’s at. Is he in the pistol or offset? Where’s the tight end? All those things change what you do.
“All the while they have to line the guy in front of them in the right place, because if he goes the wrong way they are going to get blocked. He and Marshall (Cooper) are playing well right now, and they are feeding off each other.”
Boeck doesn’t talk about himself much, even after making 25 stops in two games. In fact, with inside linebackers Jones and Jay Person back from injury, Boeck says he’s not taking anything for granted.
“(Inside linebackers) Coach (Mike) Yeager is not going to let somebody just have a role and keep it,” Boeck said. “Whoever does better that week is going to start, and that’s the way it should be. It will help a lot getting those guys back. The competition in practice this week is great, and having that depth will definitely help us.”
After Wright’s praise of Boeck during Tuesday’s media luncheon, though, it seems the 6-foot-2, 225-pounder will have a spot somewhere.
“He’s very smart, so we’ve talked about the possibility of us moving him around so he can help us out if somebody isn’t playing well at a spot,” Wright said. “That’s what’s awesome about Ty. Because he’s put the work in, he’s becoming a very good football player.”
Wright and Boeck also talked about the breakdowns Saturday that led to 400-plus rushing yards by Western Carolina, including a 69-yard fake-punt run for a touchdown. The mistakes that led to that and eight other plays of 15 or more yards are a major focus this week heading into UTC’s first Southern Conference road game at Mercer on Saturday.
“It was a one-guy breakdown on those big plays,” Wright said. “Not taking the dive when he’s supposed to and trying to make a play outside; not taking the quarterback when he’s supposed to, things like that.
“I was afraid we were going to make those mistakes because of how hard the previous three weeks had been.”
According to Boeck, the mistakes come mainly from guys trying to make big plays instead of just doing their jobs.
“We have to do our jobs – stay in gaps and not go out of our way to make plays,” he said. “Just do your job and the play will come to you. We don’t need to make spectacular plays; just make the plays. We can fix those things, and it starts this week.”
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6296; follow on Twitter @youngsports22.