If senior defensive back Kam Baah-Slay had it his way, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s 2026 football season would begin in the very near future.
There’s still a lot to figure out in terms of the roster and the preferred personnel, but after a disappointing 5-7 record in 2025 for the program’s first losing season since 2017, the Mocs are ready to get back out there.
Kickoff won’t come until Aug. 29 at West Georgia, but UTC did complete a major phase of the offseason work Saturday with what was billed as the “Spring Showcase,” a controlled scrimmage at Scrappy Moore Field in which the Mocs made some dynamic plays on both sides of the ball.
The offensive highlights included a pair of touchdowns by senior running back Kevin Lalin, one of them a 61-yarder, while the defense was able to get in the backfield with three sacks, including one from sophomore Ryan Bell — like Lalin, a first-year transfer. C.J. Smith and safety Jordan Davis were also credited with sacks.
UTC spring football showcase on April 18, 2026
It’s a night-and-day difference from a year ago for the Mocs, who underwent an almost complete roster rebuild after the 2024 season. Guys like Baah-Slay — who would have likely been a backup again last season had it not been for former starting safeties Josh Battle and Jordan Walker transferring to Southern Miss and West Virginia, respectively — were required to be ready sooner than later. There were some growing pains throughout the season, but now it has made players like him better for what this season could be.
“Guys are moving way faster, playing way faster, knowing where they need to be in their spot at the right time,” said Baah-Slay, an All-Southern Conference second-team safety last season after compiling 89 tackles. “Mentally, we’re way better than we ever were in the spring a year ago.”
(READ MORE: Mocs see benefits of roster retention in first week of spring football)
The offense was led by Lalin’s 81 yards on five attempts Saturday, while Harrison Bey-Buie added 36 rushing yards. The quarterback reps were split by redshirt sophomore Battle Alberson (10-for-15, 85 yards), redshirt junior Matthew Clemmer (5-for-14, 65 yards) and junior Parker Awad (7-for-11, 67 yards), a New Mexico State transfer.
The Mocs have dealt with some injuries at receiver, but Central Oklahoma transfer Ashton Schumann had 69 yards on six catches, including the junior’s diving grab for 20 yards. Tiffin transfer Will Jackson-Linkhart, a senior, had a 28-yard touchdown catch waved off due to a penalty on the play.
Offensively, the team was without 2025 leading receiver Josh Williams, 2025 preseason All-SoCon tight end John McIntyre and leading returning rusher Journey Wyche. Williams and McIntyre have been out all spring after offseason procedures, while Wyche was banged up in practice during the final week of drills.
“I think we played with a lot of confidence in our first group on offense today,” center Devin Lively said. “That makes it a lot more fun. The experience we got this spring I feel really good about. We meshed really well as an offensive line; we’ve got some stuff in that I think is going to help us throughout the season, but I think a day like today, you really get to see where you’re at, and I think watching the film, it’ll be a good barometer of where we’re at.”
With the roster retention far better this offseason (the Mocs lost just five starters to the NCAA transfer portal, a year after losing three times as many), the staff was able to throw some more things at the players this offseason and challenge them in ways that head coach Rusty Wright admitted he just couldn’t have done a year ago — and he felt like they responded well.
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“This group will let you push them,” said Wright, who is preparing for his eighth season in charge at his alma mater. “They didn’t turn anything down that we threw at them from January until now. We’ve gotten a little bigger, stronger, which has helped. We’ve learned a little more, which I think we threw more on this bunch than we did at this point in time last year, but what we’ve got to go back and do as a staff is we’ve got to go back and see how we can take these pieces and and see how we’ve got to help them moving forward.
“We’ve already been talking about that, how to do some things in the summer to help them with the young guys we’ve got coming in. I don’t know what it looks like in the fall, but I think they’re going to let us go coach them, and they’re going to let us push them, and we’re going to find out what they want to get out of it.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com.