Rusty Wright feels no pressure heading into his University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team's regular-season finale at Western Carolina.
If he did, it would be warranted: The Mocs were on the cusp of making the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs for the first time since 2016 a year ago but came up short when they needed a win late in the schedule, and they're in the conversation again with the 24-team bracket set to be revealed Sunday.
The Mocs (7-3, 5-2 Southern Conference) need a victory against the Catamounts (5-5, 3-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Cullowhee, North Carolina, to solidify one of the 13 at-large bids. UTC is 15th in the Stats Perform Top 25 and ranked 17th by FCS coaches, one of four SoCon teams in both polls entering the last weekend before the postseason.
It's not impossible that the Mocs get in even if they lose — seven Division I victories is usually the threshold for an at-large bid — but why make things more difficult?
Wright's lack of pressure comes from the knowledge that he has a good football team, because he has seen the growth in his fourth season as coach at his alma mater. That wasn't always the case this year — he had to help oversee the development of certain positional groups during the preseason — but he knows where this team is now, and he feels confident in the product the Mocs will put on the field in what they hope is simply the finale to the regular season instead of their entire football year.
"Our kids are going to go play well," Wright said earlier this week. "They're going to give themselves an opportunity to go play well, I can promise you that. Do I know what it looks like if it gets done? I don't, but I can promise you this: That group will go out there and play their guts out on Saturday."
That wasn't a feeling Wright had late last season. UTC's mistake-filled loss at Mercer in November 2021 was crushing, a blow the team never recovered from on the way to losing at home to The Citadel the following week to finish 6-5. This year there was a similar theme in a sense as the Mocs lost an important game last Saturday to Samford, which has clinched the SoCon's automatic playoff bid, but they played much better after a slow start that was uncharacteristic for this year's team in home games.
It's been on the road where the Mocs have struggled to start fast. So while Wright and his team may not feel pressure now, that may change if they let the Catamounts — who average 31.9 points per game and lead the SoCon in total offense at 503.1 yards per game — hang around.
"We've been a second-half team for majority of the season," quarterback Preston Hutchinson said recently. "I really don't think it's a problem with how we prepare or how we come out; I think that's just how it's been. I don't think there's a theme to it, I think it's really just coincidental, and I'm ready to change that this week by coming out fast.
"I don't think there's a specific thing we need to do to change that. I just think it needs to be changed, and that's what we're going to try to do."
Added Wright: "We've done some things differently in practice trying to help that out, but games aren't won in the first quarter. They may be lost, don't get me wrong, but for the most part the people we play at our level, we've got a chance and we've got to figure out how to go get it done, and it's why I'm not worried about this group showing up Saturday. They've worked hard to try and be good, and I know we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. It may not always look like it when we're playing or anything like that, but they'll fight and give themselves a chance no matter what."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.