While the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga rushing attack has been anything but explosive this season, it's important to note how far that aspect of the team has come in a year.
The Mocs have averaged 98.4 yards per game this season, which is eighth in the Southern Conference going into this Saturday's 3 p.m. game against Virginia Military Institute at Finley Stadium. Yet that is over 40 yards a game more than the 56.9 yards UTC had averaged through seven games in 2017.
This season's team has topped 100 yards four times; last season's team did that only three. UTC running back Tyrell Price ranks fifth in the conference at 74.7 yards per game, highlighted by a season-high 135 against Western Carolina on Oct. 13.
"That felt real good," Price said last week. "I think it can bring back a little bit more confidence in me and my team. It was practice, though: How we came out in practice helped us out, so now in the future we'll know what we have to do.
"We can feed off that."
The performance against the Catamounts helped the Mocs (5-2, 3-2) shake off some of the bad taste from back-to-back bad rushing outputs. In losses to East Tennessee State and Wofford, they gained a total of 70 yards on 43 carries.
The Mocs as a team finished with 138 yards at WCU - the second-most in a game this season. This week could yield another opportunity for a solid ground performance, as the Keydets (0-7, 0-6) allow 288.9 rushing yards per contest and 543.7 total yards per game, most in the SoCon and 121st in the Football Championship Subdivision out of 124 teams.
The 26-6 win over the Catamounts was highlighted by two things offensively, both run-game based. First was a 29-yard rush by Price with the Mocs backed up at their own 1-yard line at the end of the first quarter.
"To be backed up like that with our backs up against the wall and get that run was huge," Price said. "We're trying to be 'Iron Fist, Iron Jaw.' We know we have an iron jaw, but to go out there and be able to do that with our backs against the wall was big for us."
The other was a 13-play, 61-yard drive with 7:51 remaining that helped the Mocs salt the game away and get in victory formation, something they had not been able to do in previous games this year.
They had 10 runs and converted a pair of third downs on that drive, gaining 46 yards on eight carries before quarterback Nick Tiano took a knee on the final two plays of the game, losing 5 yards.
"It was good to see us get a little bit more going in the run game, especially late in the game," coach Tom Arth said. "To be able to close the game out in victory formation was awesome and we certainly ran the ball well on that drive, but going back and looking at the tape, we still had some bad runs; we still had some negative runs; we still had runs for no gain. So while the yardage and stats look good, we need to be able to run the ball when we want to run the ball.
"There were moments in the game when we weren't able to run it and we had to throw it to get in the end zone, so when we talked to the team, we told them, 'Don't let the stats lie to you. Don't feel good about this.' We had over 100 yards rushing, but we need to run it when we want to run it. It's a pride thing, a kind of mindset and a philosophy within our offense we need to be able to achieve."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.