Two moments one week apart changed Southern Conference games in different ways for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team.
In UTC’s league opener against The Citadel last weekend at Finley Stadium, a second-quarter touchdown catch by tight end Nathaniel Eberly-Rodriguez was called back due to a penalty, and the Mocs said that play shifted the momentum in what became a 28-10 loss to the Bulldogs.
Saturday afternoon at Virginia Military Institute, UTC’s offense was backed up as far as it could go after a VMI punt was downed at the 1-yard line. In a drive that changed the momentum of another game — and could potentially turn the tide of the season — the Mocs responded with a nine-play series capped by running back Ryan Ingram’s 8-yard touchdown for a scoreboard cushion just before the first half ended.
All 99 yards came on the ground, part of a 223-yard rushing performance in UTC’s 21-14 win against the Keydets, whose own ground game produced just 45 yards on 26 carries.
In other words, at least for one day, the Mocs (2-4, 1-1) were back to playing the way they wanted to. There were no stars — emblematic of this year’s rebuilt team — as much as there was just effort and desire to improve after the previous week’s disappointment.
Justus Durant had 144 yards on the ground to lead the Mocs, and Ingram scored twice a week after a lower-body injury limited the veteran against The Citadel.
When the Mocs struggled to run the ball early on against VMI (1-4, 0-1), they leaned on an aerial attack that delivered as quarterback Camden Orth completed his first eight passes for 74 yards, including a 6-yard touchdown to Josh Williams to start the second quarter.
Orth had 123 yards on 14-of-23 passing, but his lone interception was returned 75 yards for VMI’s lone touchdown, which cut the lead to 14-11 in the third quarter. UTC responded again, this time with an eight-play, 65-yard drive that ended with Ingram’s second score, a 10-yard run.
That was enough for a defense that limited VMI without a rush longer than 9 yards and got two sacks from Jamarr Jones and an interception from Kaelin Drakeford. Kamari Todd, a freshman safety, led the team with 14 tackles, including 1.5 for loss.
“We were trying to get that sour taste out of our mouth, and we were better than what we showed last week,” said Drakeford, who also made two tackles Saturday.
“Last week was for sure a disappointment, to be honest with you,” Jones said. “I feel like this whole week we had a mentality of just coming back and dominating. This is a hard trip, and we knew that we were going to have to bring our ‘A’ game.”
It’s now followed by an open date exactly midway through UTC’s regular-season schedule. The Mocs return to action when East Tennessee State visits Finley Stadium at 1:30 p.m. Oct. 18 for the Rail Rivalry game and another SoCon test, one of six remaining for the Mocs.
UTC improved to 21-9-1 in the series with the Keydets, with the Mocs winning for the fourth straight meeting. Including Saturday’s game, though, the past four series meetings at VMI have been decided by a touchdown or less, a stretch that started with back-to-back losses for UTC in 2019 and 2021.
“Today was good because it wasn’t like it was one guy,” coach Rusty Wright said on the UTC radio broadcast’s postgame show. “There were people all over the field having to play hard and make plays and do things, and that game had a bunch of ebbs and flows in it, a bunch for a 21-14 game. It had a bunch of ups and downs, but I’m just really happy for our players and our coaches that we handled a long, hard trip.
“We can get so much better. There were so many things we left out there that we have to take advantage of, but just super proud of just how these kids fought. I told them not to worry about the scoreboard, let’s just go play hard and see what happens and I’ll deal with the outcome, and I’m just proud of them and the coaches for fighting hard to get it done.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.