If there was a word to describe the emotional state of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program after the Mocs’ 36-13 loss to Samford on Saturday at Finley Stadium, shell-shocked would be a good start.
UTC, the preseason favorite to win the Southern Conference, entered its league finale with that title already in Mercer’s hands but with the Mocs still hanging on to their playoff lives in the hunt for an at-large berth and a second straight appearance in the 24-team Football Championship Subdivision bracket.
The prevailing thought had been that the Mocs, 19th in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 and tied for 25th in the coaches poll in the most recent rankings, could not only get in by closing the regular season with back-to-back wins against teams with losing records — Samford and United Athletic Conference program Austin Peay, which hosts UTC next weekend in Clarksville, Tennessee — but potentially host a first-round playoff game as one of the bracket’s 16 seeds.
November struggles have long been a talking point around UTC’s football program. Still, aside from a 24-21 loss in the 2021 finale to The Citadel — which had won just three games that season before its visit to Finley — when the Mocs needed a win to get into the playoffs, most of the November losses came against teams with at least winning records.
Saturday, when the Mocs struggled throughout their final home game on the schedule, wasn’t that.