There was nothing Chase Artopoeus could do at the end of last season but watch — helplessly.
Sure, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga quarterback was proud of his fellow Mocs teammates, who ended a six-year skid of missed Football Championship Subdivision playoff appearances by qualifying in 2023. Led by backup quarterback Luke Schomburg the Mocs even won a game on the road at Austin Peay before succumbing to Furman as a shell of themselves after a rash of injuries at key positions.
But this had become Artopoeus’s team. In his first season at UTC, the UCLA transfer had thrown for 2,672 yards and 20 touchdowns and guided the Mocs to a 7-2 mark heading into a regular-season matchup against Furman with the Southern Conference’s automatic bid on the line. But three plays into the game, Artopoeus suffered a partially torn labrum, which affected his ability to get any control or velocity on his passes. He completed the game and threw for 289 yards and a pair of scores, but was sacked five times as the Paladins won 17-14 at Finley Stadium.
At that point he knew the pain wasn’t manageable and turned the ball over to Schomburg, who was respectable against Alabama in the season finale and had 259 yards and a score against the Governors before himself suffering an injury a week later against Furman in the second round of the playoffs.
While he was obviously happy for the success of the team in his absence, he admitted that “selfishly and personally, it hurt.”