Like it or not, McClendon Curtis and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program are right back in the same spot they were a year ago.
Going into the regular season's final weekend, the Mocs can't risk a loss if they want one of the 14 at-large spots in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs when the 24-team bracket is announced at 12:30 p.m. next Sunday on ESPNU.
If that sounds familiar, it's because that's basically the same scenario they were in at the end of the 2021 campaign. Like then, they are coming off a loss to one of the top teams in the Southern Conference (10-6 to Mercer last year, 35-24 to Samford on Saturday) with a game against a middle-of-the-pack conference opponent to finish things off.
Is this UTC team different than last year's? Players on the current roster have suggested a lot of the upperclassmen mentally checked out after the November 2021 loss at Mercer, which was followed by a home loss to The Citadel.
But this team is different – right? That's what the Mocs have said, and now they'll have to show on the field.
"We'll find out what this team is made of," fourth-year UTC coach Rusty Wright said. "We'll find out if it's been all talk and if we have the right people here, so I'm excited to go with them. I think they will prepare themselves like they should.
"I firmly believe that we'll go out there and prepare and give ourselves a chance to go win next Saturday, and we'll see if it's good enough."
FCS rankings are released on Mondays, but in last week's polls, UTC was 11th in the Stats Perform Top 25 and ranked 12th by coaches, while Samford was 10th and ninth, respectively.
So despite their latest defeat — which allowed Samford to clinch at least a share of the SoCon title and secure the league's automatic bid for the FCS playoffs — the Mocs (7-3, 5-2) can put themselves in solid position to make the postseason for the first time since 2016 with a win at Western Carolina (5-5, 3-4). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. Saturday in Cullowhee, North Carolina
The combination of being a ranked team all season and finishing with eight wins would likely be enough to get the Mocs in. The only way to avoid what would be perceived as another regular-season meltdown is to win, and that will require being locked in this week leading up to the game.
Curtis is a sixth-year senior offensive lineman who played his high school football nearby for the Central Purple Pounders, and so he has seen what the Mocs have gone through since 2016, when they made a third straight playoff appearance. He's also a team captain who is eager for this team to end that drought.
"I want to really keep playing with these guys," Curtis said after Saturday's setback on senior day. "This is my last year, a lot of these guys' last year. The younger guys are going to have to see us still work, still trying to get better, and I feel like everybody else will follow along. If we go out there, whenever we practice Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and we fool around, we're going to screw those chances, so I don't think we'll do that. I'm very confident in this group.
"A lot of guys didn't feel like they played their best today, and that happens sometimes. It's fine, but it's all about how you respond, because in life you're going to get knocked down. It's how you respond to it, and I feel like we'll respond well, and if the seniors and leaders do their part, we'll be fine."
Those leaders said they'd already been having the conversation in the locker room once the game ended.
"We're not going to do what we did last year — we can't do that," edge rusher Jay Person said. "We're going to come out and practice this week like we'd normally practice and go out to Western Carolina and get the victory."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.