It was just three weeks ago that University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coaches knew some things had to change on offense.
The Mocs were coming off a 17-14 home loss to Furman on Nov. 4 that wrapped up their Southern Conference schedule — and allowed the Paladins to wrap up the league’s automatic bid for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs — and it was the offensive line’s worst performance of the season.
UTC netted 93 rushing yards on 26 carries that day at Finley Stadium, but the team’s official total on the ground was just 68 yards due to Chase Artopoeus being sacked a season-high five times.
That also turned out to be the final game this year for Artopoeus. The 6-foot-2, 208-pound junior from California, an offseason transfer from UCLA, had been the Mocs’ starting quarterback all season. But he was ruled out the day before the regular-season finale at Football Bowl Subdivision power Alabama with an upper-body injury — that game followed UTC’s first open date of the season — and didn’t play last Saturday either, when the Mocs won 24-21 at Austin Peay in the first round of the FCS playoffs.
Instead, redshirt freshman Luke Schomburg took over behind center, and that will be the case again this week when the Mocs get a rematch at Furman. The Paladins (9-2), who had a first-round bye as the 24-team bracket’s No. 7 seed, will host UTC (8-4) at 1 p.m. Saturday in Greenville, South Carolina.
UTC coach Rusty Wright said during a news conference Tuesday that Artopoeus is “done” and will undergo surgery, but no matter who was taking the snaps — the 6-3, 194-pound Schomburg, as it turns out — Wright, offensive coordinator Joe Pizzo and offensive line coach Kevin Revis knew offensive adjustments were coming.
“We’ve changed some things to help (Schomburg) out a little bit, how we’re running the football to kind of create a little more space in some areas,” Wright said. “That’s what you have to do to be successful; you’ve got to continuously evolve.
“We were already talking about how to do things differently. We may not be an inside-outside zone team next year. We’ve already talked about doing things differently that way. We started tinkering with it a little bit in the open week, and we did some things differently against Alabama, and that’s probably the direction we’ll go next year because of the guys we have, the running backs and the offensive linemen we have.”
Staff photo by Olivia Ross / UTC quarterback Chase Artopoeus takes the snap as Nick Cerimele, left, and Reid Williams, right, prepare to block during a Sept. 16 game against The Citadel at Finley Stadium. Artopoeus is out for the season, but redshirt freshman quarterback Luke Schomburg’s first two starts have been helped by playing behind an experienced offensive line.Since the open week, UTC senior Gino Appleberry has rushed for 104 yards against Alabama — making him the first Football Championship Subdivision player to top the 100-yard mark against the Crimson Tide since 2018 — and 64 yards at Austin Peay, where sophomore backup Reggie Davis totaled 97 yards. Appleberry scored in both games, including a 40-yard touchdown run against the Tide, further showing his ability since taking over as the team’s No. 1 running back since Ailym Ford’s season ended due to injury after seven games.
What has made it easier is that the offensive line has been able to build some continuity by staying intact.
The same unit has started up front in 10 of the 12 games, a difference from last season, when there were six different starting groups. The Mocs did lose Bryce Goodner — a 2022 SoCon All-Freshman selection — for the season due to injury even before the opener, but the top five of Griffin McDowell, Jeremiah Katt, Reid Williams, Almarion Crim and Dave Monnot have mostly been together all year.
“These guys are starting to jell, and I think if they watched the film — and they’re going to watch the film — they’ll see we’re playing like a different group right now, our whole front, our running backs and tight ends, we’re playing at a different level right now than a few weeks ago, but our guys believe that it’s a great challenge,” Revis said. “We’re ready for it, our guys aren’t going to back down or flinch, we don’t do that. We’re ready for the challenge, man; it’s going to be a battle, and those guys want it.”
That battle will be a second chance against Furman. The offensive line didn’t feel like it was at its best the first time against the Paladins, and the rematch has even higher stakes.
“We love the challenge. We love the opportunity,” Williams said. “We think we’re the underdogs going into it. It’s a great opportunity to get the chance to go prove ourselves.
“Everybody’s counting us out, and we’ve got a chip on our shoulder.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.