UTC wide receivers coach Greg Harbaugh talks to players during practice Monday. Harbaugh is in his first season on staff, with second-year head coach Tom Arth having hired him in the spring.Greg Harbaugh knew his first group of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga receivers was going to be talented and experienced.
He's even more happy that they are becoming tougher and hungrier.
Harbaugh, a former quality control assistant at the University of Minnesota who also spent a couple of years at Western Michigan, didn't get his new position until April, a couple of weeks after the Mocs' spring game. Not long after getting to Chattanooga, the coaching staff was on the road recruiting, so Harbaugh didn't get a chance to really get to work with his players on a full-time basis until preseason practices started last week.
"We're just really starting to work on fundamentals and getting better from that standpoint," Harbaugh said after a recent practice. "The process started from the time we got started in the summer with me, just them getting to know me, me getting to know them, it's been awesome.
"Coach (Tom) Arth is a first-class man, a first-class coach, and I love working for him. Coach (Justin) Rascati, his system here caters to the players, and it's been a learning process, totally different than what I'm used to."
Harbaugh came from a no-huddle, spread, run-pass option offense at Minnesota and Western Michigan to a huddle, shift-and-motion offense that also has other options in play.
He said he wants his group to "be physical."
"The receiver position is looked at as a prima donna position, and I'm not that kind of guy," he said. "I demand my players to not be that way. The number-one thing that we're going to do is be physical and tough, and we're going to be the best we possibly can each and every single day. The previous day doesn't matter; it's a new day, so we've got to get better. It doesn't matter if we're terrible the day before; we'll be better the next day. Every single day of training camp I feel we've got better. Maybe it's not been in huge leaps, but a little leap each and every single day.
"I teach and demand them to do what we've been asking them to do. It's their job to prepare and perform."
He's an intense coach, one constantly running up to each player during the early going and making sure he knows where to go on a particular play before the snap. It's one of the things Arth likes about his newest assistant.
"I felt this in the interview," Arth said. "He's very passionate about wide receiver play. He's very intelligent, has incredible energy and great intensity that I think that group really needs. He's on them all the time on every detail of every route, every detail of run blocking. He doesn't give them an inch, and that's important for those guys, and I see it.
"I see the guys improving at the position, and I think that Greg has done a really good job."
The Mocs return four seniors with at least 10 career catches at UTC - Bingo Morton (54), Joseph Parker (34), Wil Young (33) and DeJuan McQuarters (15) - along with sophomore Bryce Nunnelly, who had 89 yards on seven catches as a freshman last year. Still, with the level of talent returning, only Morton and Parker have done it consistently over a year.
That's why Harbaugh describes the group as one that "has a lot to prove."
"My biggest thing is that they've done a lot, but they've got more to prove every single day," Harbaugh said. "I make sure to know they're not proven, and if they have that mindset every day, they're going to be good."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.