The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 2022 roster is vastly different from its 2021 roster. That was evident in last weekend’s season-opening 31-0 Southern Conference win over Wofford, when 14 new starters (nine offensive) entered the lineup.
Yet the outside expectations are similar, with the Mocs again picked as the favorites to win the SoCon title — a goal they ultimately fell short of last season as they went 6-5 and lost their final two games when wins likely would have led them to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.
When it comes to handling those expectations, though, tight end Jay Gibson already sees a difference.
“Before the season even started, we were talking about how we were going to win the conference, we’re going to go undefeated in the conference,” he said of the 2021 Mocs. “This year, all summer, all fall camp, we were talking about how we’ve got to beat Wofford in week one — nobody’s thinking about the future. Everybody’s just talking about winning that game and winning the next game.”
Last fall’s disappointing finish seems to be one reason for the new attitude. The roster changes seem to be another factor.
Talk with coaches and players about last year, and one gains the sense there was some unearned arrogance within the team, which had a bunch of “old dogs” — and everyone knows the saying about old dogs. There were senior members of the team who were set in their ways and weren’t changing at that point in their career.
“We had some distractions at the end of last year, but I believe this year a lot of the guys are even more focused now because they understand the repercussions of what can happen,” senior cornerback CaMiron Smith said. “They understand that there are no ‘me’ guys on this team, not a lot of selfish people. They don’t want to disappoint their teammates just as much as they don’t want to lose the game, or disappoint coaches, families and stuff of that nature. I believe that we all have a bond with each other, whether it be offense, defense, special teams, we want to be there for each other.
“Guys have seen what’s transpired in the past, and they don’t want that to take place because that hurt us last year in winning a Southern Conference championship. We don’t want anything to distract us from the end goal, which is winning.”
With one game behind and one win to show for it, coach Rusty Wright and his staff are dealing with a new challenge: the road trip. UTC, ranked 10th by FCS coaches and 11th in the Stats Perform Top 25, visits Eastern Illinois at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Last year, the Mocs were largely an experienced group the first time they traveled. From the walk-through to the team dinner to lights out to kickoff, they had some understanding of how to handle a game away from Finley Stadium. A lot of the current Mocs are doing all of that on the road for the first time.
This year, the Mocs designated captains ahead of the season for the first time under Wright, and the experience accumulated by those four players — seniors Ty Boeck, McClendon Curtis and Devonnsha Maxwell and junior Ailym Ford — will allow coaches to lean on them on for the accountability necessary heading into a big game on the road against a tough opponent.
Eastern Illinois went 1-10 overall and 1-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference last year, but an offseason coaching change has alum Chris Wilkerson leading the Panthers, who opened last week with a 34-27 loss to Football Bowl Subdivision member Northern Illinois. The Panthers received votes in this week’s FCS coaches poll.
“I don’t know how they’re going to handle it,” Wright said. “We’ve got to go see how that happens and see how they handle those things and if we’re mature enough to go travel on the road, take care of our business and be business-like when it comes to getting ourselves prepared to go play.
“We’re going to play a game, so let’s play the game. I think we’ve got enough of a mix of guys to where we can keep everything on track.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.