The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team used a big second half Saturday at Finley Stadium to pull away from Virginia Military Institute, defeating the Keydets 31-10 to improve to 5-3 overall this season and 4-1 in the Southern Conference while extending its winning streak to five games.
Here’s a look back at that game — the Mocs’ third consecutive conference win of 21 points or more, which is a first for the program — and a look forward to the next one as UTC prepares to face Western Carolina (4-4, 3-1) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Cullowhee, North Carolina. UTC is in the most recent editions of both Football Championship Subdivision polls listed at NCAA.com — ranked 19th in the Stats Perform Top 25 and 25th by FCS coaches — and could move up Monday.
Speaking of moving up: With the regular season about to enter the final month, UTC is tied for first place in the SoCon standings.
The SoCon race has always been a marathon, not a sprint, and that’s because of all the different styles and rivalries within the conference as well as the fact that each team has to play every other one, allowing no opportunities to escape. The Mocs’ 0-3 start to this season included an 0-1 mark in league play after a 10-3 loss to Mercer on Sept. 14 at Finley, but they have won their past four SoCon games, doing so so by an average of 22.8 points.
The latest one came virtue of a second-half domination on both sides of the line of scrimmage, with the Mocs rushing for 168 yards on 28 carries (including a trio of rushing scores in the final 30 minutes against VMI. Meanwhile, the defense limited the Keydets to 86 rushing yards on 29 attempts for the game, with 43 of those yards coming on VMI’s final possession and against UTC backups.