For offensive lineman McClendon Curtis, defensive lineman Devonnsha Maxwell and so many other upperclassmen on the 2022 University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team, this season is personal.
Curtis and Maxwell are two of the three remaining members of the 2017 signing class, and they came to UTC with visions far different than what has happened during their time with the Mocs.
Contending for Southern Conference titles and reaching the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs had become the expectation by the end of Russ Huesman's eight years as head coach before he left for Richmond after the 2016 season. As Tom Arth took charge of the Mocs and Curtis and Maxwell signed, the program was coming off three straight playoff appearances.
The Mocs haven't been back to the postseason since then.
Of course, there's an alternate reality where current head coach Rusty Wright, an assistant for the second half of Huesman's UTC tenure, was hired instead of Arth, perhaps keeping the program on the same track. Wright had made no secret of his desire to take over, but when UTC chose Arth, Wright ended up as an assistant at Georgia State for two years.
The opportunity he wanted finally came when Arth left for Akron after two seasons and a 9-13 record leading the Mocs.
Curtis said earlier this week that the Mocs had no leadership back then. Even worse, they had received a label no football player wants: "soft."
"When I got here, it was really hard because it wasn't the same place I left, and it had only been two years," said Wright, 15-13 since returning to his alma mater as head coach. "I remember that first fall camp, I called a team meeting, shut the door and kicked all the coaches out, and I'm just in there with the players and I'm like, 'What's going on?' This wasn't the place I left, and these were guys we brought in here and they weren't where they should be.
"I'm not knocking that previous group. It's just a completely different philosophical-type deal, but it was not the same tone and the same mindset about going and getting things done."
If Wright had been hired after the 2016 season, would this team look the same?
Sure, maybe Curtis, a graduate of nearby Central, is on the roster, along with linebacker Ty Boeck from Soddy-Daisy, but maybe the Mocs don't get Maxwell, who is currently 7.5 sacks behind Davis Tull for the school record. Maybe they don't get running back Ailym Ford, who signed in 2018 without a head coach in place and has gone over 1,000 rushing yards in each full season of his UTC career.
At this point, though, the roster — including the upperclassmen — has been built largely by Wright and his staff, and it's the group that will make another run at returning to greater success as a new UTC season kicks off against SoCon opponent Wofford at 6 p.m. Saturday at Finley Stadium.
Just like last year, the Mocs enter the season ranked nationally ranked — they're 12th in the Stats Perform Top 25 and 13th in the FCS coaches' poll — and picked as favorites to win the league title. They still had that chance late in the season but lost their final two games and finished 6-5, extending the program's playoff drought.
What happened?
"We let that Mercer game beat us twice," Curtis said of the 10-6 loss to the Bears that was followed by a 24-21 defeat at home against The Citadel in the finale. "No matter how positive some people can be, and everybody has an idea, that's not going to work. It's frustrating because you're supposed to keep playing past November, but there were guys ready to move on from football because at this level, some guys don't have that next level opportunity. There were guys ready to start working, or just ready to be done with football, and you can't force somebody to play football."
Curtis also said he felt that over the years, there have been about 90% of the players bought into what's going on, but he said that other 10% "can bring you down, especially if it's guys that play a lot."
Wright's perspective?
"I left it up to some older guys to handle things, and I thought they were ready to do that, and that's my fault as a head coach," he said. "I don't put blame on anybody else for that except for me, and I learned from it. I can't do that with young people because they're not ready for it; that's why they're under our watch."
So why should people think this season will be different?
"Everybody's buying in the same way," Maxwell said. "Guys aren't as entitled as others. In the past, we've had guys who've played before at higher levels, so they had set ways that they feel work, so buying into a new system was hard for them, but I feel like everybody's buying in now."
Wright is confident this group will be be different, but last season also kicked off with all the positive communication that's been evident this year, so to set itself apart, this UTC team must advance to the playoffs.
Boeck, Curtis, Ford and Maxwell were selected captains for the season. It's the first time season captains have been selected since Wright took over.
"I didn't feel my first couple of years here that we had that leadership," Wright said. "Those guys have hung around and done it right, but at the end of the day, we've got to go win it (the conference). We've got to figure out how to go win it, and that's the thing: I don't know what it'll look like to go get it done, it's always hard, you know, but you've got to figure out how to go win it. That's the thing I couldn't impress upon that group last year was that they had to go win it. We're going to be in an opportunity to go do it; you've got to go do it.
"Monday through Friday we're going to put them in the right spots. Saturday, I promise you they're going to make the right calls — go do it. You've got to want to go do it."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.