Never too high. Never too low.
That’s essentially been the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team throughout the 2024 season to date, and it’s been a recipe for success after an 0-3 start that included a pair of one-score losses.
So when things didn’t start off too well against winless Virginia Military Institute on Saturday at Finley Stadium, the Mocs didn’t flinch. Instead, they got back to work, and the results showed in the final 30 minutes of the Southern Conference matchup, when they outscored the Keydets 17-0 and cruised to a 31-10 homecoming victory in front of 8,071.
The crowd included Pro Football Hall of Fame wide receiver Terrell Owens, and the UTC great got to see the Mocs, ranked 19th in the Stats Perform FCS Top 25, wrap up an unbeaten October while pushing their winning streak to five games. They’ve also won the past three meetings with VMI, building their advantage in the all-time series to 20-9-1.
The Mocs (5-3, 4-1) will begin a two-game road swing with a huge matchup next Saturday in Cullowhee, North Carolina, where they face Western Carolina (4-4, 3-1) at 2:30 p.m. The Catamounts, who lost 44-34 to Mercer (7-1, 4-1) about the time the Mocs were polishing off the Keydets, won last season’s meeting with UTC 52-50 in Chattanooga.
Sometimes the slow starts for UTC are simply the coaching staff just trying to figure out what the other team is doing before they hatch their own method of attack. Against the Keydets, the passing game — specifically redshirt junior receiver Javin Whatley, who still had a game-high six catches for 49 yards — was going to have a hard time succeeding, so UTC responded by rushing for 285 yards, including a career-high 131 by redshirt junior Reggie Davis, whose 27 carries included a touchdown.
Sixth-year senior quarterback Chase Artopoeus was held to 114 yards through the air on 13-of-26 passing, but he had 82 yards and a pair of scores on the ground, and freshman Journey Wyche added 64 rushing yards and the first touchdown of his UTC career. The Mocs rushed for 168 yards in the second half.
“The biggest thing is we figured out a way to win a football game,” UTC coach Rusty Wright said. “They don’t look the same, no two look the same, and I give our kids credit. We just kept battling and doing the things we’re supposed to do.
“It’s hard, and people don’t understand this, it’s hard all across the country to be at your best and be excited as you can be for 12 weeks. I give our kids credit. I’m not sure how into it we were mentally — physically, I know we were there, but mentally, I’m not sure how into we were early — but they battled and kept us in it, and we figured out a way to win a football game.”
The Keydets took a 10-7 lead in the second quarter after quarterback Brady Hammonds escaped the pocket, took advantage of a busted coverage and found Egypt Nelson streaking for a 26-yard score. Two drives later, the Mocs went 65 yards on nine plays, with Artopoeus scrambling 23 yards for his second score of the game to put the home team up for good.
Asked if he likes running the ball, Artopoeus, who has four rushing touchdowns in the past two weeks, shook his head and said “definitely not.”
“Some of those runs I probably have to unhitch the trailer a little quicker,” the second-year starter said. “Sometimes you get out there, and I just don’t run a lot, so I’m like, ‘Wait, what do I do now?’ You really don’t have a plan, you’re just running to grass. I was talking to some of the running backs, and they said they always have a plan when they get in the open field.
“Maybe this week in practice I’ll try to learn a little better on how to set guys up, assuming I have to keep running the ball a little bit.”
Davis and Wyche added their scores in the second half, and Jude Kelley kicked a 30-yard field goal in the fourth quarter, giving the Mocs their third consecutive SoCon win of 21 or more points for the first time in program history. Saturday’s victory followed a 37-5 home win against Wofford a week earlier and the 41-10 win at Furman on Oct. 5.
On defense, the Mocs had a pair of takeaways: an interception by Jeremiah Batiste and a fumble forced by a Chris Victor sack, with the ball recovered by Leroy Harris and returned 44 yards into VMI territory. It was Victor’s second sack of the game.
Junior linebacker Alex Mitchell led the team with eight tackles, including two for loss.
“I think we really just had to lock in and figure out what we were doing assignment-wise,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think we were playing with our full effort in the first half, and I think we just had to get with each other and wake each other up and know that we had to go out there in the second half and play Chattanooga football.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.