With the 18th-ranked University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team’s season opener against 20th-ranked Austin Peay on Thursday, here are five bold predictions for the season by Mocs beat reporter Gene Henley:
* The Mocs will have a top-three rushing offense in the Southern Conference without a 1,000-yard rusher. In 2019, the Mocs had a 1,000-yard rusher in SoCon Freshman of the Year Ailym Ford, but a lot of that came as a result of no real depth in the backfield as he had at least 29 carries in four consecutive weeks. The return of Tyrell Price and the addition of sophomore Gino Appleberry means Ford won’t have to carry the load. Price was an All-SoCon performer in 2018 and Appleberry had two touchdowns in a game as a freshman at Western Kentucky. Even Lance Jackson, who is fourth on the depth chart, had a 137-yard, two-touchdown performance in Mercer. All it means is that the Mocs will have multiple options to carry the ball during the game and can figure out the hot hand in the fourth quarter of close contests. Why is that important? During the Mocs’ peak run from 2013-16, the team always averaged at least 200 yards per game rushing, topped by averaging 241.9 yards per game in 2015 – it’s highest-ever total as a Division I program.
* Three quarterbacks will play. The rushing attack will be important because there’s no clear-cut answer at quarterback. Of course, there are three guys that the coaching staff feels good about – senior Drayton Arnold looks like the starter, while junior Cole Copeland and sophomore Robert Riddle, a Mercer transfer, are right on his heels – but the fact that nobody has distinguished himself as “the guy” means there will be little room for error. Copeland replaced Arnold against Furman during the spring season and engineered a couple of scoring drives in the 20-18 win, and UTC head coach Rusty Wright has said that he has no problems playing multiple guys. If Arnold – or one of the others – gets the job and runs with it, that would be best, but it feels as though all three will see action at important points of games.
* UTC has a top-two defense in the league. The Mocs led the league in total defense during the 2020 season, but it’s really hard to judge how good they truly were as they didn’t face either Samford or Virginia Military Institute, the league’s top two passing attacks in the spring. In 2019, the Mocs were fifth in scoring defense, total defense, rushing defense and passing defense (while leading in takeaways per game), so it stands to reason that an experienced group will find a way to be even more dominating this fall.
Staff photo by Troy Stolt /Chattanooga Mocs linebacker Ty Boeck (46) and Chattanooga Mocs defensive lineman Ben Brewton (53) tackle Wofford Terriers running back Ryan Lovelace (28) during the football game between UTC and the Wofford Terriers at Finley Stadium on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021 in Chattanooga, Tenn.* Ben Brewton has a breakout season. It’s the Devonnsha Maxwell effect. It’s also similar to 2016 when the Mocs had an established guy at one end (Keionta Davis), which paved the way for Vantrell McMillan to have four sacks in his first two games on his way to 7.5 sacks and first team All-SoCon honors. With blocking schemes probably geared more towards stopping Maxwell (17.5 sacks, fourth all-time at UTC), that’ll pave the way for Brewton, the physically-gifted 6-foot-3, 228-pound sophomore who is likely to start on the opposite side.
* The Mocs go 9-2 in the regular season: There are numerous pitfalls along the way (at Samford, at Virginia Military Institute, at Wofford) and UTC will likely lose one of those. But this is a team led by a lot of experienced guys who came to UTC not far removed from the three consecutive Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances, but not a single player on the roster has experienced that yet. It’s a hunger that’s reminiscent of 2014, when the team followed a missed playoff chance the previous season by sweeping its way through the SoCon schedule. The Mocs will equal that nine win regular season and carry momentum into the playoffs.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.