Chris Mayes, No. 97, runs through drills with other defensive linemen during practice. The UTC Mocs held their first pre-season practice at Scrappy Moore Field on Thursday afternoon.University of Tennessee at Chattanooga defensive tackle Chris Mayes answers three quick questions about Saturday's game at The Citadel:
1. As someone who started his college career at Navy, you can appreciate what The Citadel's athletes go through. What's one thing the rest of us don't get about being a student-athlete at a military academy?
Mayes: "You basically have no free time, whatsoever. If you do have free time, then you're not doing something that you're supposed to be doing. You're either not focusing on football, school or your military aspects of the day. So to be an athlete at one of these schools takes a lot."
2. Is football practice the closest you come to "free time" during the week?
Mayes: "It's not like free time, but it's basically the closest you'll get to being at a normal school. You've got football practice, like thousands of players across the country. It basically is an escape from everything else."
3. How important is it for UTC defensive tackles to clog the middle of the line Saturday?
Mayes: "The key to having a successful triple option [like The Citadel uses] is getting a push up the middle, so it's going to be up to our core group, especially the defensive tackles, to have a great game -- play physical, tough and just fight the whole 60 minutes. It's definitely going to be a fight for 60 minutes."