University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Rusty Wright's plan for Sunday morning is to wake up and worry about that day. There will be no looking ahead to anything further down the road.
He will take a moment to look back, though, and be pleased by what happened Saturday afternoon, when his Mocs had a good-but-not-great 34-3 win over rival East Tennessee State University in front of 8,144 at Finley Stadium. Mostly, though, his concern will be the present, because that's how Wright prefers to operate.
“That’s the problem with this world. We worry about things two weeks out, three weeks out. That’s got nothing to do with today, and that’s a problem,” he said after UTC earned its fourth straight win in the “Rail Rivalry” — with each of the previous three victories in that run by eight or fewer points — and increased its all-time advantage in the series with ETSU to 26-19-1.
“We all want to look ahead," Wright added. "We all want to figure out how we can do something (later) when we need to focus on winning today. I’m never worried about what’s going to happen in the future.”
On Saturday, Wright’s focus was on the result, which pushed the Mocs' record to 6-2 overall and 5-1 in the Southern Conference.
Next weekend? There will be a trip to Lexington, Virginia, a place where Wright is winless in two tries as UTC's head coach. After that? Possibly a chance to compete for a share of the SoCon championship at home against Furman (6-1, 4-0). But that’s way, way too far off in the distance for Wright to think about.
Saturday, his focus was on his offense, which had a workmanlike effort. He was also focused on his defense, which continued its solid play — two weeks after a 52-50 loss to Western Carolina at Finley and a week after a 22-10 win at Mercer — by holding the Buccaneers (2-5, 1-3) to 120 yards on 55 plays.
But the UTC coach was also focused on running back Ailym Ford. Wright said Ford, a sixth-year senior, recently had surgery for a torn ACL, effectively ending his UTC career. Ford, who played the past two weeks with the injury, has career totals of 3,928 rushing yards and 36 touchdown runs, both second in Mocs history to former quarterback Jacob Huesman.
And that’s why Wright, in his fifth season leading his alma mater — and with the Mocs ranked in both Football Championship Subdivision polls (20th by coaches and 21st by media) as they seek the program's first playoff berth since 2016 — remains solely focused on the week at hand, the game at hand, the moment at hand: because nothing beyond that is guaranteed.
That's why earlier in the week, he said he doesn’t care “what happens with us the rest of the way” because of how much he enjoys being around this 2023 team. So he doesn’t assume wins, although Saturday’s result against the Bucs was rarely ever in doubt.
The Mocs took control with touchdowns on their first three possessions, with senior running back Gino Appleberry scoring twice and quarterback Chase Artopoeus finding Jamoi Mayes for a 45-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. Mayes hauled in the pass with one hand and eluded multiple defenders to score.
UTC's offense seemed to then lose some of its focus with consecutive turnovers and a pair of punts to finish the first half. Artopoeus and Mayes linked up for a score on the first drive of the second half, but four field-goal tries by Clayton Crile — he was 2-for-4 a week after he was 5-for-5 — and a punt were the result of UTC's final five possessions.
Artopoeus, who passed for 249 yards Saturday, said after the Mocs "kind of had a slow start" a week earlier at Mercer, against the Bucs “it was definitely a point of emphasis to get out and get on them quick, kind of get this offense humming, which I think we did, but I think once we accomplished that goal, maybe we kind of lost sight of the rest of the game.
"Second quarter, I didn’t think we played our best offense, and it’s something we’ll definitely have to reevaluate, go back and fix," Artopoeus added. "But I do think we were able to pick it back up in the third quarter and play off of our defense in the second half.”
That defense forced four turnovers — three fumble recoveries and a Kam Brown interception, his 10th career pick — and sacked former McCallie standout William Riddle four times — two by Jay Person and one each by Ben Brewton and Marlon Taylor — as he was 8-for-25 passing for 46 yards.
In the past two weeks, the Mocs have held Mercer and ETSU, two teams that prefer to run the ball, to zero and 74 yards rushing, respectively.
“We’re starting to live up to the potential that I thought when before I transferred here,” said safety Clay Fields III, who tied a school record by breaking up four passes. “It was just a big thing that we stopped the run these past two weeks against teams that pride themselves in running the ball. That was a big emphasis for us this week.”
Mayes had a team-high 92 receiving yards on five catches, and sophomore Reggie Davis rushed for 68 yards on 15 carries in his first game since getting injured in the season opener at North Alabama.
The Mocs will face Virginia Military Institute (3-4, 2-2) at 1:30 p.m. next Saturday.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.