Left with few choices after a Sept. 30 loss to Western Carolina, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Tom Arth decided to give up the planned redshirt of freshman Cole Copeland.
Presumed starter Alejandro Bennifield missed the first four games due to suspension, and when he returned he lasted nine plays, suffering a concussion against the Catamounts. Sophomore Nick Tiano, who started the first four games in Bennifield's place, entered in relief but suffered a shoulder injury fighting for extra yardage late in the game.
With Copeland taking over the next game, little by little the team rallied around the 6-foot-4, 200-pounder. Progressively they got better, to the point where the Mocs - 1-4 at the time he took over - won two of their final three games, knocking off then eighth-ranked Samford and East Tennessee State to end with a 3-8 record.
The former Bradley Central High School star finished with 1,177 yards and seven touchdowns with a 63 percent completion rate. He had planned on playing the 2018 season as a redshirt freshman but instead will be doing it as a sophomore. And he's fine with that.
"So many people come up to me and ask if I hate they burned my redshirt, and I tell them, 'No, not really,'" Copeland said. "I had a year to grow which I would not have had if it hadn't happened. The only way you can grow is being in the fire; people talk about mental reps and they help a little bit, but you're not going to get anything out of it unless you're in the fire. This year, the way the team rallied and the seniors led us was something special.
"I'm going to remember this year for a long time."
And it wasn't just Copeland's performance: The whole offense started to improve. The rushing attack, statistically one of the country's worst with 398 yards seven games into the season, netted 461 yards in the final four games. The offensive line started to grow with the emergence of redshirt freshman left guard Cole Strange.
"We got a lot better," Arth said. "We were certainly not perfect; we still made mistakes, we still missed opportunities to execute when we're capable, but we've improved so much and it starts up front. The offensive line is a big part of that improvement; I'm proud of the work, because it's a lot of hard work that went into getting where we wanted to be."
And Arth was quick to point out that it's still not a finished product. Going into next season, the team's top two running backs - Darrell Bridges (587) and Richardre Bagley (168), who missed five games due to injury - will have to be replaced. Center Josh Cardiello and Alex Hooper, who started the last two games, also will be gone. So will wide receivers Alphonso Stewart and James Stovall and tight end Malcolm Colvin.
But with the level of experience that is expected to return, with a year in Arth's system, the Mocs feel good about what lies ahead.
"Late in the season, the communication came together," said receiver Joseph Parker, who caught 34 passes for 405 yards and three scores. "A lot of the guys before the new coaches got here were a spread team, and there was a lot of simplicity to it. They had signals and everybody knew what they had to do. Now we have a million different ways to do a million different things with a million different people.
"Early on, it wasn't physical, it was mental, but as we started coming together, doing the right things and not mentally making mistakes, we all came together. Now going through a season together with the playbook can only help us take the offense to what it's supposed to be and not what it was at the beginning of the year.
"Everything is going up from here, so I'm excited. We've seen the lowest of the lows; now it's time to see the highest of the highs."
Cooper honored
UTC sophomore Marshall Cooper was awarded Southern Conference special teams player of the week after blocking the punt that led to the go-ahead touchdown in the Mocs' 10-3 win over East Tennessee State.
Mocs pick up two
The Mocs added to their 2018 signing class Monday with a pair of nonbinding commitments, both from the state of Georgia.
Kell High School running back Josiah Futral and Discovery defensive end Jahmel Flowers became the program's eighth and ninth commitments for next season. Each was UTC's second commitment at his position.
The 6-foot, 192-pound Futral had 1,015 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns this season, averaging 7.7 yards per carry for the Longhorns. He totaled 3,096 rushing yards and 31 touchdowns for his three-year career.
Flowers (6-5, 220) had 26 tackles, three sacks, a pair of quarterback hurries and a forced fumble in 2017.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.