There are moments - though too few for his liking - during his first season as head coach at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga when Rusty Wright sees what he wants his football team to become.
For 30 minutes of Saturday's 35-27 Southern Conference win at Samford, the Mocs reinforced what their fiery coach and his staff have stressed all along: Hard work and attention to detail will eventually pay off in wins.
Coming off a strong week of practice that followed back-to-back league losses to Wofford and Furman that effectively eliminated them from title contention, the Mocs put together their best first half of the season against Samford and its high-octane offense.
UTC (5-5, 4-2) totaled 356 yards (181 passing, 175 rushing) in the first half and scored on four consecutive possessions to build a 28-7 lead at the break - all despite losing star freshman running back Ailym Ford to a knee injury on the game's first series.
Defensively, after allowing a 75-yard touchdown drive on Samford's second possession, the Mocs held the Bulldogs to 43 yards the rest of the half.
"I hope it's some growth with us becoming a football team," Wright said of what Saturday's game could mean to the program. "Wins are always good this time of the year. Five sounds a whole lot better than four, and six will sound even better than that.
"We're beat up, and we knew coming down here that it would take all 60 or 58 (players) - or whatever we brought on this trip - to go out and win it. We did that today. I knew we would play hard. I didn't know what our mindset would be to play hard. We found a way to finish it, so that was good."
While there was some concern about a letdown, players insisted Saturday it was never an issue in the locker room or on the practice field last week. Senior tight end Chris James said that is a reflection of the coaching staff.
"We fight. We fight every day in practice, and every game we fight for four quarters," James said. "That's a credit to Coach Wright and the culture he has brought here and what he's trying to build. It's awesome. It's cool to us to respond like this. It is a credit to the leadership we've gotten from the seniors and the coaches."
UTC will take on The Citadel (6-4, 4-2) at 2 p.m. Saturday at Finley Stadium before closing the season at Virginia Military Institute on Nov. 23.
Mocs notes
* Turnovers matter. The Mocs won the turnover battle for the fifth time this season - they lost one fumble but picked off two passes - and they're 4-1 in those games. They're 11-2 in such games the past three years.
* UTC held the ball for 36:42, its second-highest mark of the season.
* The offensive line did not allow a sack for the fifth game this season. They entered Saturday second in the SoCon and No. 7 in the Football Championship Subdivision with just eight sacks allowed in 2019.
* The defense tied a season high with three sacks (Khayyan Edwards, Davonnsha Maxwell, C.J. Winston) and a season-best seven tackles for loss.
* If Ford is unable to return this season, he will fall 9 yards shy of Mike Smith's program record for rushing yards by a freshman (1,090 in 1977).
* Nick Tiano, a fifth-year senior who transferred to UTC before his sophomore season and missed six games due to injury that year, continues to climb the career charts for UTC quarterbacks. His 5,327 passing yards are seventh all-time in program history; he moved ahead of Brian Hampton for fifth in passes with 797; his 31 touchdown passes are seventh all-time. Also, his 100 rushing yards Saturday are the most by a Mocs quarterback since current tight ends coach Jacob Huesman had 129 against Fordham four years ago.
Contact Lindsey Young at lyoung@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6296. Follow him on Twitter @youngsports22.