Heath Eslinger was very active during Thursday's University of Tennessee at Chattanooga wrestling practice.
The Mocs' coach watched intently, listening to input from assistant coaches and offering some to his wrestlers, while also holding them accountable. He knows what they are capable of - and that they haven't reached that plateau.
With the nonconference season officially complete, UTC gets into the meat of its Southern Conference schedule with five consecutive league matches, starting tonight at 7 against SIU-Edwardsville (3-9, 1-0) at Maclellan Gymnasium.
The Mocs (4-6, 2-0) are battle-tested, as five of their six defeats have come against nationally ranked opponents - No. 2 Ohio State, No. 6 North Carolina State, No. 8 Virginia Tech, No. 11 Northern Iowa and No. 20 Lock Haven - along with a 20-17 loss to Old Dominion in last week's Virginia Duals.
Eslinger built the tough nonconference schedule, which also included an 11th-place finish in the Southern Scuffle, so his team could be ready for this portion of the season.
"That's the beauty of it," Eslinger said before the season. "The great thing about wrestling is we do believe we can compete with those guys. Is it tough? Yeah. Are you oftentimes playing with a different deck of cards? Yeah, but the good thing is it's not a math test, it's a competition, and things can happen in a competition."
The Mocs are expected to start Alonzo Allen (125 pounds), Chris Debien (133), Michael Pongracz (141), Roman Boylen (149), Dylan Forzani (157), Chad Pyke (165), Justin Lampe (174), Bryce Carr (184), Scottie Boykin (197) and Ben Stacey (285) tonight. Stacey, typically a 197-pounder, is back at the heavyweight position while normal starter Connor Tolley works to get back from injury, which could happen in the next week or two.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.