Chase Artopoeus had just helped the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team cruise — eventually — to a 37-5 win over Wofford on Saturday afternoon at Finley Stadium, but he was already looking toward next week.
Not the next opponent or game, per se, but the process of correction and preparation that comes first.
“I think there’s a lot of stuff we could fix from this game,” said the senior quarterback, who ran for two touchdowns and threw for another as the Mocs pushed their overall record above .500 for the first time this season. “I’m already thinking about certain plays in my head that I just want to watch on film to kind of understand what happened and how we could fix it in practice.”
That’s the culture that has been created for the UTC football program under sixth-year head coach Rusty Wright, whose confidence in his team never wavered even after an 0-3 start. That team looks nothing like this team, which won its fourth consecutive game and third straight in Southern Conference play to improve to 4-3 overall and 3-1 in the league.
The Mocs, who are ranked 23rd in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25, will host Virginia Military Institute (0-7, 0-3) at 4 p.m. next Saturday, with the homecoming matchup happening just before what could be a huge matchup for the SoCon when the Mocs visit current league leader Western Carolina (4-3, 3-0) on Nov. 2. The Catamounts will visit Mercer (6-1, 3-1), which beat UTC last month at Finley in the SoCon opener for both teams, next Saturday before hosting the Mocs.