Reginald Henderson knows it. All of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga receivers know it.
The Mocs like to play complementary, balanced football. So far this season, only one area has consistently lagged behind the rest, and that’s the passing game. That falls on the receivers, and that falls on the quarterbacks.
Why the receivers? They’ve been prone to some dropped passes, and two weeks ago at Kentucky in UTC’s most recent game, they struggled in the first half to get on the same page with junior quarterback Cole Copeland.
Why the quarterbacks? Because neither Copeland nor senior Drayton Arnold has exactly been blazingly accurate, having missed on a number of throws during the team’s 1-2 start.
And for the Mocs to become what they’ve aspired to be as a program this season – what they appear to be talented enough to be – the passing attack is going to have to do its part. UTC quarterbacks have been sacked only three times, so it’s not the offensive line. Ailym Ford ranks second in the Southern Conference in rushing yards per game and Tyrell Price is right outside the top 10, so only so much can fall on the running game.
The defense is ranked eighth nationally among Football Championship Subdivision programs in sacks per game with 3.7, and the Mocs are in the top 25 in nearly every category on that side of the ball, so all the team really needs from its passing game is to instill some level of fear in opposing defenses.
As the Mocs enter SoCon play by hosting Western Carolina (0-4, 0-1) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, they rank last in the league in total offense at 299 yards per game. They’re also last in passing efficiency (88.8) and next to last in passing yards per game (132.7).
UTC has averaged just 9.5 yards per completion, and only four of the team’s 42 completions have gone for 20 or more yards (the offense has three such rushing plays). Three of those long completions were by Arnold in the 30-20 home loss to Austin Peay in the season opener. In the 20-0 win at North Alabama a week later, the new starter was Copeland, who has only one such completion – a 25-yarder to Kanore McKinnon in the 28-23 loss to Kentucky on Sept. 18.
Basically, through three games the Mocs have had the worst passing attack in the SoCon, and that’s going to have to change – and soon.
“Well, we’ve just got to throw it better,” offensive coordinator Joe Pizzo said. “That’s the bottom line: We’ve got to throw the football better. We’ve got some downfield stuff in the game plan. The quarterbacks are coming along and Cole is getting better, so I just have to figure out what he can do best, but we’ve got to get some help out wide and guys are going to have to make some plays, because we haven’t made a bunch of explosive plays in the passing game.”
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC quarterback Cole Copeland folows through on a pass over Mercer’s Solomon Zubairu during a SoCon game at Finley Stadium in March. Copeland is set to make his third straight start when the Mocs host Western Carolina to open conference play Saturday.Some of that falls on Arnold and Copeland – both largely inexperienced quarterbacks at the college level despite being upperclassmen on the roster – but Pizzo had a one-on-one conversation with Henderson this week, wanting the talented 6-foot-4, 206-pounder to get the message across to the rest of the group that the receivers need to help the quarterbacks.
“Right now, the main thing we have to do is win the 50-50 balls,” Henderson said. “I feel like we’re moving in the right direction, but Coach Pizzo was telling me we need to have some more guys step up and make plays.”
In that regard, Copeland will have to help the receivers help him. He’ll be making just his ninth career start and playing in just his fifth game since the end of the 2017 season, and with the rushing attack what it is, defenses will try to make UTC beat them through the air.
That doesn’t mean Copeland has to throw for 300 yards, but the former Bradley Central standout and the Mocs on the other end of his passes will have to keep opponents honest with some completions downfield.
“I think against Kentucky, we changed our offense quite a bit, and obviously we performed better, at least in the second half,” Pizzo said. “I think now we’ve got a pretty good grasp, and I think this game plan coming this week will be pretty much all built around what Cole can do.”
Boeck the best
The Mocs received another accolade on the other side of the ball Friday, when the SoCon announced that junior linebacker Ty Boeck was its defensive player of the month for September. The former Soddy-Daisy star has 28 tackles with four for lost yardage and two sacks through the first three games, with 13 of those tackles coming at Kentucky as the Mocs threatened to upset the Southeastern Conference’s Wildcats.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.