Chase Artopoeus loves to play chess.
In a game of chess, the moves are strategic, and usually moreso about the bigger picture. That is the case with Artopoeus, even if the moves don't make sense to the people outside of his inner circle.
The 6-foot-1, 207-pound quarterback had offers to continue his football career out of high school at prestigious academic programs such as Brown and Cornell, but instead the Orcutt, California native chose to stay in state and attend UCLA. Why? Because he wanted to go into coaching, and admired head coach Chip Kelly.
For four years, he learned. He was behind Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who was the primary starter for the Bruins for five seasons. But having graduated, Artopoeus decided he was ready to play and spoke with Kelly about a transfer. The UCLA head coach was more than willing to help him find a home, and asked him one day, "Do you have any schools in mind?"
Oh, did he. Artopoeus had created an Excel worksheet of Football Championship Subdivision schools that had the most proficient passing offenses in the country in 2022, and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga was on that list. Combine that with the level of talent that still remains on the Mocs' roster after a 7-4 season -- and the program's need for an upperclassman at quarterback -- and the marriage made too much sense.
Chess. Not checkers.
"I started playing football in seventh grade, and started playing quarterback my freshman year of high school," Artopoeus said recently. "I really got into the schematics of the game, and it's like chess because I like seeing moves and how things fit together. I've always drawn schemes and football plays in my notebooks; like, I'd probably draw more of that than actual curriculum and stuff because I'd really like to be a coach. I like helping people, and in the minimal times I've coached I've really enjoyed it, so when I was coming out of high school I'd always looked up to Chip Kelly. I'd read books about him and everything. So it was a no-brainer to think going to UCLA was going to set me up for a good time and make a good relationship there with the coaches, their network and everything.
"I don't regret going to UCLA. It was a great time and I met a lot of great friends out there and great coaches and learned more about football than I ever would have maybe somewhere else."
Artopoeus spent a lot of his time on the scout team and earned the school's Scout Team Offensive Player of the Year award in 2021, and was on the travel squad last season, earning snaps in wins over Alabama State and Colorado. Now he gets his chance to compete for a starting quarterback spot for a team that's been on the cusp of the FCS playoffs in each of the past two seasons.
"He's brought a little bit of calmness with a bunch of new guys up front for us," said UTC head coach Rusty Wright, who noted the school's homework on Artopoeus included going back and watching high school film as well as UCLA practice tape. "It's a little easier when zero (senior running back Ailym Ford) is back there for him to do those things. He's a completely different personality than (fellow transfer quarterback) Preston (Hutchinson), which is fine, and that's good. But I think the thing is it doesn't seem like a whole lot bothers him, he just goes out there and plays the game. He made a throw today in practice and I told him, 'Get excited about that throw,' and he's like, 'I'm supposed to do that.' I said, 'I know, but you can still be excited about it.' I think that's going to go a long way for us, just the calmness because we're still relatively young in a bunch of spots."
There's zero doubt that Artopoeus feels he made the right decision. Remember, he's done his homework.
"I think we're ready to go," he said. "We have good quarterbacks here and they're really good and they're really proficient quarterbacks, so it's good to battle with them every day and see who is the best out of all of us. The running back position is great, great line, amazing. The receivers are really good. They're all pretty veteran in the system and the tight ends are great. The defense, I have a lot of respect for them.
"I wasn't really sure what this team was all about because I'm coming to a new program and I haven't seen anybody play, but from the first day out here I got a very nice welcome and I'm really liking things. We have a group that's ready to ball."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC's (9) Chase Artopoeus fires a pass from the pocket during a UTC football practice at Scrappy Moore Field on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.