The time is here. The time is now.
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program starts its 2025 schedule Saturday at Memphis (4:30 p.m. Eastern on ESPN Plus), and for Rusty Wright, there are some similarities between the beginning of this season and the opener in 2019.
Six years ago, Wright was making his debut as the head coach at his alma mater, having returned to Chattanooga after two seasons on the staff at Georgia State that followed his second stint as a UTC assistant. Back then, so many unknowns surrounded not just that year’s team but the program as a whole, but Wright navigated those 2019 Mocs with so many new pieces to a somewhat unexpected 6-6 campaign.
Fast-forward to this season, when there are so many unknowns after a massive roster overhaul due to graduation, transfers and retirements. Who are these guys? What do they do well? Wright and his staff have had a month to figure it out, and although they have some educated guesses, they still don’t really know.
Only two of the projected 22 for Saturday’s opening lineup were primary starters last season: right guard Tyrell Ragland on offense and cornerback Jeremiah Batiste on defense. Redshirt junior Luke Schomburg has made a combined seven starts at quarterback for UTC the past two seasons (the final three games of 2023 and the final four of 2024), but he has been in a competition with Bowling Green transfer Camden Orth, a seventh-year senior, and Wright has not publicly announced a winner.
Five other players also have multiple starts in a UTC uniform, so it’s not entirely from scratch, but it’s pretty close. That essentially put every position up for grabs, so there were battles, there were fights, and a new life was breathed into the program.
Any frustration from players wondering “When is my time?” got a pretty direct answer: It’s now.
“This offseason was really competitive,” said junior linebacker Zion Rutledge. “I will say in the past we had a few established guys, so obviously you’re not going to have guys fighting as much because you knew someone else was going to start anyway. But this year was truly something, because we don’t know who’s going to be on the field, so if you want your spot, go take it. It was great for the first team and it was great for the second team, because you knew your spot wasn’t yours, it was for the taking. The competition level definitely grows every day.
“It was a good feeling knowing that you have that competitive edge every day.”
Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but the Mocs are about to start figuring that out.
UTC is coming off a 7-5 season (with a 5-3 record in Southern Conference play) that left the program short of what would have been its second straight appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs but also just the second since three in a row from 2013-15.
“I’m excited because we have young guys that are excited again,” Wright said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that want to prove they can play, want to go be those guys, want to go be the next set of guys, and they have to go do it. I get upset at these guys in practice, but I don’t get frustrated. In the past I would get frustrated, because I’d seen them go be good. I’m not frustrated with this group. I know we’ve got to figure out ways to continue to help them grow and help them learn.”
Over the course of the first month, new names will pop into the public consciousness as the Mocs work through a challenging nonconference schedule. It begins with Football Bowl Subdivision member Memphis — the Tigers, an American Conference program coming off back-to-back seasons with 10 or more wins, received votes in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll —- and includes road games against two teams in the FCS national rankings (Tennessee Tech on Sept. 6 and Tarleton State on Sept. 20) sandwiched around the home opener against Stetson on Sept. 13 at Finley Stadium.
By the time UTC hosts The Citadel on Sept. 27 to begin SoCon play, this team should have a lot more answers. They might have a few by Saturday night.
“We changed practice a little bit this year, but Saturday is what it is, whatever happens, I’m excited to see how this group handles all of it, from pregame warmups to the end of it when we get in the locker room, because there’s only a handful of them that have been through it with us,” Wright said. “That’s what’s going to make us grow and learn, and I told them the other day after practice, we have to have the urgency every day to get better, and we have to have the urgency to get better every week and force ourselves to go get better every week, and then we’ll see what it’s like when it’s done.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.