College football is a vastly different product than it was 20, 10, even five years ago.
And it’s a landscape that, while not crushing things entirely, is severely affecting the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
After decades of “a college education is enough,” the NCAA opened up the world of college athletes being paid, initially from Name, Image and Likeness (essentially advertising products and having sponsorships) and now from this new world of NIL collectives, which at the highest levels of college football is basically fans buying players that have been trained and developed at other, usually smaller, schools.
But at schools the level of UTC, the money — at least comparably speaking — isn’t there, which makes retaining top talent difficult.
The Mocs, who finished 7-5 and were one of the first teams left out of the 24-team FCS playoff field, were crushed by the transfer portal, which closed over the weekend and won’t open again until April 16th.
Among UTC’s losses:
› Top running back Reggie Davis, a first-team All-Southern Conference;
› Top two receivers Sam Phillips and Javin Whatley, who combined for 105 catches, 1,500 yards and nine of the team’s 15 passing touchdowns;
› All-American center Reid Williams;
› Top linebacker Alex Mitchell;
› Top cornerback D’Arco Perkins-McAllister;
› Top two safeties Josh Battle and Jordan Walker, each of whom was All-SoCon in 2024.
In some cases, the aforementioned players left for a chance to compete at the highest level. It’s also likely that a couple left for the promise of a bigger payday, something players are finding out more and more isn’t always a reality.
Combine that with the loss of 15 graduated seniors — including two-year starting quarterback, an offensive lineman with 29 career starts and the entire front seven on defense — and it will make for the program’s first real restart since Wright took over after the 2018 season.
Historically, Wright has not provided a path back for kids who have entered the transfer portal — “That’s not how we do it here. You enter, you’re gone,” were his words at the end of the 2023 season — but in this new age, it may be time for Wright to consider softening that rule, especially as only two of the aforementioned transfers — Mitchell to Middle Tennessee State, Battle to Southern Miss — have found new homes as of Monday.
In December, though, Wright’s words seemed to suggest that he was going to stick to his methods, as he eluded to the likelihood of his teams getting “younger” ever year.
“I tell our coaches, you’ve got this many high school kids (you can sign), and then you better be looking because you never know what’s going to happen,” Wright said after signing 11 high school kids in the early period. “It’s not just us; it’s everybody in our league, it’s everybody at this level and you just have to deal with it. Now, does that mean we probably get younger every year?
“Sure, I don’t think we’ll ever go past 20 seniors anymore and that’s just the nature of what we’re in, but I also tell our coaches if somebody leaves that you think is a good player, it’s no different than them getting hurt the first day of fall camp; you’ve got to figure it out.
“We’ve got to figure out how to go play football games and how to go win, and that’s how I look at it. Whenever somebody leaves it’s like, ‘He got hurt. He can’t play,’ and what are we going to do? Are we going to sit here and whine and cry about it or are we going to figure out a way to go get that next guy ready and give ourselves an opportunity to go win a football game?”
Since the early signing period ended, the Mocs have picked up one transfer, Kristian Ozane, a hybrid linebacker from Davidson, and a pair of high school kids. They’ll need a lot over the next few weeks before anyone feels confident that the program can even compete in 2025, another 12-game schedule that features non-conference trips to Football Bowl Subdivision Memphis; seven-win Tennessee Tech and 10-win Tarleton State, the latter which advanced to the second round of the FCS playoffs.
Classes start on Jan. 6 and the last day to drop or add classes is Jan. 12, so any potential transfers the coaching staff are targeting would need to be locked in by the next week or so to go through spring practice and get acclimated to teammates. But in some cases those transfers may be asking for money, which may be money UTC either doesn’t have or isn’t willing to give and also why it may be easier to take the Wright approach and just build from the bottom and hope what you’re doing as a university is good enough to attract — and keep — talent.
In other words, welcome to the new world of college football.
But UTC isn’t backing down from the challenge.
“We remain steadfast in our commitment to providing exceptional opportunities for our student-athletes, on and off the field,” UTC vice chancellor and athletic director Mark Wharton said recently in a press release. “While the financial landscape is becoming more complex, we are dedicated to pursuing solutions that uphold our values without compromising the quality of our programs. This means embracing innovative approaches to financial planning rather than resorting to cuts that could be detrimental to our student-athletes, staff and fans.
“Our alumni, fans and donor involvement is crucial in navigating this brave new world. We believe that, together, we can meet these changes as well as the ones to come and emerge stronger than ever before.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.