The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program had just secured its sixth consecutive series win over rival East Tennessee State University, 42-38 and in dramatic fashion Saturday afternoon at Finley Stadium, to maintain possession of the Rail Rivalry trophy for what now amounts to 2,194 days (and counting).
That’s when an ebullient group of Mocs started walking — railroad tie in tow — toward the dejected Buccaneers.
So here came UTC strength coach Gerry Pacitti and senior kicker Jude Kelley, attempting to push back the youthful group enjoying a high to start the second half of the regular season after the first six games had yielded their share of lows.
The presence of Pacitti (and other coaches) was expected, but Kelley being there spoke to what had just happened during the game: A team stocked with younger players was led by a small — but important — group of upperclassmen who have been there before and know what to do in tense moments.
Offseason attrition via graduation and the transfer portal took quite a bit of experience from UTC, so seventh-year head coach Rusty Wright and his staff have had to count on a lot of youth, with 11 of the team’s 22 starters on offense and defense and basically half of the players who have played in either their first or second college season. There are obvious drawbacks that have shown up in games and in the win-loss column for the Mocs (3-4, 2-1 SoCon), but there’s a lot of potential in the future — with the emphasis on potential, considering what the program experienced this year in players moving on.
Still, when UTC got the ball back down 38-21 with 10:17 to play in Saturday’s game, the Mocs basically relied on juniors and seniors to make the plays that made the comeback possible. Offensively, quarterback Camden Orth was turned loose, completing 12 of 14 passes for 185 yards and three touchdowns down the stretch, and senior Jamarii Robinson was on the receiving end of two of the scores.
On the winning drive, every yard was accumulated by either a junior or senior.
“We’re finding our groove,” said Robinson, a Northern Colorado transfer who didn’t get to Chattanooga until right before the Mocs began preseason practices. “I think we’re going to go on a little run now and we are going to continue after this week.
“Football is a game of runs, and while we weren’t scoring, the defense was getting some stops. We knew as an offense, we had to go out there and score.”
It also helped that the Mocs have a quarterback who has been in some tough moments before.
Orth joined the Mocs in January as a Football Bowl Subdivision transfer from Mid-American Conference member Bowling Green, and during his time with the Falcons, he started a road game against Michigan in 2023 — the season in which the Big Ten’s Wolverines went 15-0 and won the College Football Playoff national championship. Orth was playing well in that game before an injury sidelined him.
“We’ve gone through so much in the season already that there was no chance for us to just give up and lay down,” said Orth, who guided the Mocs to 232 yards of offense on their final three possessions against the Bucs (3-5, 1-3). “We finally finished the game, so I’m super happy about that, but obviously I have to play well to do that, so I’m glad that was able to happen.”
Wright, who has never finished a season with a losing record since taking over at his alma mater, had challenged this year’s youthful team to give him everything they had week in and week out, telling the Mocs “we’re not big enough, we’re not strong enough, we’re not old enough right now.”
Those younger players are learning at full speed — missing some plays, making some plays — but when it was time for the Mocs to go find a way to win Saturday, they knew who to turn to as five of the six touchdowns scored by UTC were supplied by upperclassmen (including Kelley, who had an 8-yard run to the end zone on a fake field-goal attempt), with the other coming from sophomore receiver Josh Williams.
The Mocs, who made the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs two years ago and came up just short of an at-large berth last fall, have kept themselves in the SoCon race as the program seeks its first league championship since 2015. Mercer (5-1, 4-0) and Western Carolina (5-3, 4-0) are the only teams ahead of them in the standings, and UTC has yet to play either.
Having won back-to-back games for the first time since last October, the Mocs will try to extend the run when they visit Samford (1-6, 1-4) for a 3:30 p.m. Eastern kickoff Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama.
Just as they have been to this point, younger players will be an important part of the process for the rest of the season, too, but they have a group of upperclassmen ready to help guide that process.
“I told the guys Friday night that they had to turn it loose and play without fear of anything,” Wright said. “This group’s growing. It’s a young bunch, and they have to keep taking those steps, but they’re growing and learning the hard way. We had a lot of hard lessons early in the year, a lot of hard lessons, but they’re growing and figuring out ways to fight and go do things, and we’re losing guys left and right and we’re getting younger, but that’s what good young guys do.
“They’ll just keep learning, keep battling, keep fighting, and that’s what we’ve got to continue to do.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.