Wednesday wasn't much for the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football program as far as replenishing the roster for the 2022 season.
But it was a start.
The Mocs officially brought in three players on the first day of the early signing period, which doesn't end until Friday. Those added included junior-college defensive lineman/outside linebacker Nate White, who started his career at Florida International, prep quarterback Lukas Schomburg; and Murfreesboro Riverdale linebacker Alex Mitchell, who was a Class 6A Mr. Football semifinalist.
But for a program like UTC - which finished 6-5 during the 2021 season - recruiting is no longer solely about bringing freshmen into the program. It's about addition by any means necessary, which also means the transfer portal.
The Mocs haven't even officially tapped into that particular resource yet, although UTC head coach Rusty Wright expects the team to look for some additions there over time, meaning there could be even more new faces in the program by the time classes start for the spring semester on Jan. 10, 2022.
But the recruiting will never stop for Wright, who said Wednesday that he and his coaching staff will be working on the roster "until May."
Staff Photo by Matt Hamilton / Head coach Rusty Wright talks to his team after a practice at Scrappy Moore Field on Thursday, September 16, 2021. "The one thing that has changed is roster management," Wright said. "We have to make sure we get the right guys, so I don't have to truly manage a turnover on the roster every year. It will be that we'll have some guys that show up here in January that have transferred in, and then we'll get through spring ball and it'll start all over again."
With all of the change going on in college football - with Football Bowl Subdivision leagues starting to stack up conferences, with playoff expansion on the horizon and one-time transfer waivers - it's possible that the transfer portal may not even be a thing much longer, according to Wright. Things could go back to the way they were, when a FBS kid had to transfer down a level to be eligible to play immediately.
But it's not a problem UTC has dealt with much, in part because the coaching staff has been more deliberate in the offers given out to players - either from the portal or high school kids.
"I talked to a kid today and he told me that he had been told by other schools that he was going to start, he was going to be playing in the NFL, he was going to get this and that and we're like, 'Dude, I'm not promising anything except an opportunity to come play and get a degree,'" Wright said. "He told me I was the first one who told him the truth, and that's the thing: it (coaching) is a great profession right now, but it's a crappy business we're going through, just to put it simply.
"But I think we'll have an opportunity at some guys because we are up front and honest with them."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.