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Mocs counting on Josh Williams for more catches in 2025

Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC sophomore receiver Josh Williams runs a route during a Feb. 12 practice at Scrappy Moore Field. Williams, who had one reception for 11 yards in his first college season, is one of just two receivers who made a catch for the Mocs in 2024 and is still on the roster.
Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC sophomore receiver Josh Williams runs a route during a Feb. 12 practice at Scrappy Moore Field. Williams, who had one reception for 11 yards in his first college season, is one of just two receivers who made a catch for the Mocs in 2024 and is still on the roster. Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / UTC sophomore receiver Josh Williams runs a route during a Feb. 12 practice at Scrappy Moore Field. Williams, who had one reception for 11 yards in his first college season, is one of just two receivers who made a catch for the Mocs in 2024 and is still on the roster.

By Gene Henley 4 min read

Josh Williams got a crash course of sorts in 2024, his first season with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program.

Williams learned behind a number of other receivers. He battled through a nagging hamstring injury that lasted the final two months of the regular season — and flared back up earlier this year as the Mocs went through spring practices.

With that “number of other receivers” now gone, though, it’s time for him to put some of those lessons learned to the test.

Only two receivers who caught passes for the Mocs last season are still on the roster: Williams (one catch for 11 yards) and A.J. Little (two for 10).

Since the end of a 7-5 season (5-3 in Southern Conference play) that finished short of the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs, Sam Phillips departed for Iowa, Javin Whatley transferred to Arizona and Chris Domercant moved on to UCF. As the team’s top trio at the position in 2024 in terms of catches, yards and touchdowns, those three players constitute UTC’s most obvious losses at receiver, but the deficit runs deeper than that. Two depth pieces, Jaden Jude and Matthew Rozier, are now at Division II programs, and even Zaire Thornton, who transferred to UTC prior to the 2022 season, is currently in the portal as a graduate transfer.