Over the course of this season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team has become just that — a team.
An offense that has reliable options all over the field. A defense that has found an identity over the past few weeks.
It’s all predicated on the UTC staff’s desire to make football as simple as it can possibly be, led by a head coach who lives by a pretty simple mantra: Players make plays.
At times, those key plays have been made by an offense led by Chase Artopoeus, a veteran quarterback in his sixth year of college football and second season as UTC’s starter. He has effectively spread his passes around, with three receivers — Chris Domercant, Sam Phillips and Javin Whatley — who all have multiple 100-plus yard games this season. And the Mocs’ rushing attack, while not great, has been effective, with junior Reggie Davis ranking second in the Southern Conference in rushing yards per game at 75.6 and some depth starting to develop behind him.
Combine that with a defense that has hit its stride, not allowing a single opponent to reach 300 yards of total offense in conference play and picking off eight passes in the past two weeks, and you have a team that has won four straight games as the Mocs (4-3, 3-1 SoCon) prepare to face Virginia Military Institute (0-7, 0-3) on homecoming at 4 p.m. Saturday at Finley Stadium.