When news broke of the release of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga offensive line coach Chris Malone in early January due to a controversial tweet, there was a lot of speculation about how quickly head coach Rusty Wright would move to find a replacement.
Normally, a coach leaving in January wouldn’t be an issue, but with the Mocs set to embark on an unprecedented spring football season, it felt as if there was a need to hire a replacement to prepare the unit for the year ahead.
But Wright didn’t make that decision, choosing to allow the other offensive coaches and assistants to instruct while letting an experienced group police themselves.
So don’t consider the Mocs’ head coach surprised with the performance put together by the group in the team’s 24-13 spring season opening win against Wofford last week. Between left guard Cole Strange (31 starts), left tackle Harrison Moon (17), right guard McClendon Curtis (14), right tackle Colin Truett (10) and center Kyle Miskelley (nine), the group has 81 starts together, so there’s a level of synergy among the unit that has been on full display.
And behind that line, the Mocs (1-1, 1-0 Southern Conference), who moved up to No. 18 in the Football Championship Subdivision STATS poll Monday, finished with a solid 301 yards of total offense against the Terriers (1-1, 1-1), who fell from 11th to 20th after the loss. More impressive was that the Mocs only finished with 78 yards passing, with fifth-year senior but first-time starter at quarterback Drayton Arnold throwing for 223 yards and a score – a deviation from the norm for a team with a number of options in the backfield.