The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team took care of business Saturday in Charleston, South Carolina, with the Mocs defeating The Citadel 31-7 to improve to 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the Southern Conference this season.
In bouncing back from a four-point loss at Western Carolina a week earlier, the Mocs also solidly put away a league win that was essential to maintaining their hopes of earning the program’s second consecutive appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Just two weeks remain in the regular season before the full 24-team field is revealed on ESPNU at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 24.
The Mocs — who were No. 23 in the most recent Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and received votes in the coaches poll, with new rankings coming Monday — played their second consecutive game with backup quarterback Luke Schomburg starting behind center as sixth-year senior Chase Artopoeus remained out due to injury. While the redshirt sophomore was effective a week after being intercepted three times, the Mocs’ performance at The Citadel (4-6, 2-5) was about their defense and a rushing attack that was able to grind out 246 yards and a pair of Justus Durant touchdowns.
Schomburg, who also started UTC’s final three games in 2023, passed for a modest 131 yards and a pair of touchdowns in Charleston. He threw just 15 passes, completing eight, and put only one ball in danger; it was intercepted, but the turnover was negated due to a penalty against the Bulldogs for their late hit on Schomburg.
Here’s a look back at UTC’s most recent game, which was the Mocs’ sixth win in their past seven meetings with The Citadel, and a look at what’s in stake in the next one as Samford (3-6, 2-3) visits Finley Stadium at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. It’s both the SoCon finale and the last scheduled home game of the season for the Mocs, who step outside of conference play in their Nov. 23 regular-season finale at Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee, where the Mocs won in the first round of the playoffs last year before losing at Furman.
Defensive clinic: The Citadel gained 99 yards on two plays: a 49-yard run by quarterback Johnathan Bennett on the first play of the game (from a formation that UTC coach Rusty Wright said the Mocs, in studying game video, had never seen the Bulldogs use) and a 50-yard touchdown run by Cooper Wallace in the third quarter.
Take those two plays out and the Mocs limited The Citadel to 178 yards on 51 plays and got three takeaways: two fumbles (one forced and recovered by Alex Mitchell, with the other recovered by Quay Wiggles) and Jeremiah Batiste’s interception.
“Those guys settled in and did a phenomenal job and played like they were capable of playing,” Wright said. “Defense travels, and we’ve got to play that way on the road.”
Offensive efficiency: On the other side of the ball for the Mocs, it was the sort of game that Wright and offensive coordinator Joe Pizzo love: Make as few mistakes as possible, figure out what’s going to be necessary to win that day, and execute what’s being called.
The recipe Saturday was to make Schomburg’s day easier by running the ball effectively, and the Mocs found a lot of success with Durant (the junior transfer made his first start) and fellow running back Reggie Davis behind the right side of the line and guard Bryce Goodner and tackle Dave Monnot III.
Once the ground game was established, the Mocs were able to use the run-pass option for the first score of the day, a 35-yard dart from Schomburg to junior Chris Domercant, who led the team in receiving yards with 69 on two catches. Javin Whatley had just two catches for 17 yards, but one of those was a 16-yard touchdown on a shovel pass from Schomburg.
Again, though, this was about the run game, and Davis and Durant combined for 218 yards on 34 rushes, a 6.4-yard average.
Playoff picture: The Mocs probably can’t secure a playoff spot in the eyes of the selection committee with a win against Samford, but they certainly can’t afford a loss.
Mercer (9-1, 6-1) won 34-0 at Virginia Military Institute (1-9, 1-5) on Saturday to become the first team to clinch an automatic bid in this year’s FCS postseason field, and the Bears — who visit Football Bowl Subdivision power Alabama this week, then close the regular season at Furman (2-7, 1-4) — can do no worse than share the SoCon championship.
Behind the Bears in the SoCon, though, the playoff picture only got muddier with East Tennessee State University (6-4, 4-2) winning 24-21 against visiting Western Carolina (5-5, 4-2). UTC, ETSU and Western Carolina all have playoff hopes, but at least one is likely to be left out after a total of three SoCon teams (including Furman’s automatic bid) made it last year.
If all three hopefuls win out, the Mocs would seem to have the strongest resumé as their worst loss would be the 38-34 setback at Western Carolina. UTC’s other defeats were in the first three weeks of the season: 10-3 to visiting Mercer (which was eighth in the selection committee’s first and most recent top-10 rankings) after a pair of road losses to FBS teams Tennessee and Georgia State.
Worth noting, though, as the Mocs prepare for Samford is that while the Bulldogs have lost four of their past five games, their win in that stretch was a stunner, 55-35 against Mercer on Oct. 19.
ETSU could wind up 8-4, but it would be with only seven Division I wins (the Buccaneers defeated Division II member UVA-Wise earlier in the season), and the best Western Carolina can do is 7-5 after an early loss to Campbell, which is currently 3-7.
Over the past decade, teams with six SoCon victories and at least seven Division I wins have been close to a lock for the playoffs. That could get tested this year.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.