The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to see in Saturday night’s season opener against Wofford, considering the Terriers had brought in new coordinators on each side of the ball.
But as a good team is supposed to do, the Mocs adjusted and took care of business, holding the visitors to 2.2 yards on 45 carries and forcing three turnovers in a 31-0 Southern Conference win in front of a solid crowd of 7,123 at Finley Stadium.
There’s a lot of new on the Mocs this season, but the program wasn’t going to be able to outrun the criticisms aimed at it after last season’s disappointing 6-5 finish. Getting back on the field gave the team a chance to let some of those frustrations out, and UTC displayed a lot of potential offensively with a ton of new faces but the same stout defense that had become the program’s calling card.
“We haven’t won a game since early November last season, so we just wanted to come out and start off with a victory like we did tonight,” said edge rusher Jay Person, who finished with six tackles, including 2.5 for loss and a sack. “Knowing this was a conference game made us work harder all summer in the offseason to take the task at hand.”