Asking around the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program about redshirt freshman A.J. Little led to two words emerging in regard to the 5-foot-10, 174-pound receiver.
Confidence and trust.
And both of those are earned.
Little was in a preseason position battle to be the third receiver in UTC’s 2024 lineup — with redshirt juniors Sam Phillips and Javin Whatley returning as starters — but when Little got hurt during camp, it allowed for the emergence of Chris Domercant, a junior transfer from Stonehill College. Now, though, with Phillips potentially having to miss time with a lower-body injury sustained late in the first half of last weekend’s game at Furman, it’s Little who is in line to be the replacement when the Mocs (3-3, 2-1 Southern Conference), who are ranked 19th in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25, host Wofford (3-3, 1-2) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Finley Stadium.
“Offensively, we trust AJ. I think he’s busted his butt around here for two years, and that’s led up to this moment,” receivers coach Ricky Spradling said. “I think those guys all know when one guy goes down, somebody’s got to step up, so I think (Domercant and Little) are the guys we’ve got to lean on this week.
“But the kid, because he shows up every day, he knows the system, he knows all three positions, that’s where we feel comfortable enough where we just throw him in anywhere, and I think a lot of those guys can’t cross-train all those other positions. AJ has put his head down long enough where you can throw him in at X or Z, and he’s going to know every one of them. I’m incredibly proud of the kid for that, but we’ve all been building for this moment in case somebody goes down. We should be ready to go.”
Little played extensively in the second half at Furman, hauling in a 7-yard catch that he was just inches away from turning into a breakaway touchdown. It would have been the second score of his Mocs career on just his third catch; his first went 57 yards for a touchdown in last season’s 48-3 win over The Citadel.
“If he lifted that outside leg just a little bit more, he was gone,” tight end Jay Gibson said. “I don’t think we’re going to skip a beat with A.J. in there. He’s a talented player. He’s really explosive, runs great routes, very sure-handed, so I think it’s kind of exciting. You’re going to get to see more players step up and make plays, and I think we’ve got a talented enough roster to fill the void if Sam’s not able to go.”
Little has done his best to be a sponge in the presence of his more experienced teammates, soaking up all the information Phillips and Whatley have been able to pass down. Mentoring is something that Phillips recently said was important to him, as it was something he felt the program was largely missing within the position group when he arrived in 2021.
“When I was younger, I wanted to have an older guy to look up to, and I really didn’t have one,” Phillips said last week, noting the closest thing at that time was Tyron Arnett, who played for the Mocs from 2020 to 2022 after transferring from Western Michigan. “It feels good to have guys to come up on your arm and be like, ‘Hey man, I don’t know this,’ so I help him out and try to be a big brother to them.”
Phillips and Whatley have spent a lot of time on the sideline working with guys such as Little and Josh Williams, a class of 2024 signee. It’s important in a room that has only one senior in it: Chris Houston, who is in his first season at receiver for UTC after being part of the running backs group the past two years.
“There’s been some ups and downs, but man, my teammates, my coaches, everybody, the staff, they’ve all been supportive, so it’s been a good journey,” Little said. “You are going to have ups and downs, it’s going to be long, but the journey was good, and I’m going to continue to grind. I’ve got older people like Nunu (Whatley), Sam, C.D., (quarterback) Chase (Artopoeus), everybody. I look up to them and I watch them a lot, so everything they do, I try to do it myself, too, because I know they’re going to do it right.
“I’m just trying to help the team out, that’s my biggest goal. The only thing I’ve got to do out there is go and compete and just play my game.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.