It has taken a while, but it appears the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's offense is slowly rounding into form.
This hasn't been a simple process of two weeks or so at the start of a football season. The Mocs have needed time and some trial-and-error work at the most important position on the field - quarterback - to start showing some of the balance that is expected under head coach Rusty Wright.
UTC showed some of that last Saturday at Finley Stadium, rushing for 271 yards and throwing for 247 in a 45-17 win over Western Carolina to begin Southern Conference play and improve to 2-2 overall. It was only the second time the program had gone over the 200-yard mark in both rushing and passing since Nov. 23, 2019, against Virginia Military Institute - the team the Mocs will face at 1:30 p.m. Saturday in Lexington, Virginia.
Last week was only the fourth time since 2000 that three UTC players rushed for at least 70 yards in the same game, with Tyrell Price (82), Gino Appleberry (79) and Ailym Ford (74) topping the mark against the Catamounts. It was the first time since Jacob Huesman (144), Derrick Craine (82) and Richardre Bagley (78) did so against Presbyterian on Sept. 26, 2015.
"It's amazing," Ford said. "It just goes to show how much work we put in on and off the field in the running back room. We've got a lot of guys that can tote the rock."
The other such performances were against The Citadel (Craine, Huesman and Keon Williams) on Oct. 18, 2014, and against Mississippi Valley State (Charles McNeill, Jason Ball and Jason Jones) on Sept. 16, 2000.
During the preseason, Wright and running backs coach Ricky Spradling noted the importance of having multiple options in the backfield, but none of those options actually matter unless a team has a quarterback who can elicit at least some sort of fear in the opposing defense. It's why as impressive as the rushing performance was, junior Cole Copeland's 239-yard, two-touchdown performance through the air was equally impressive.
"I think our offense is growing," Wright said this week. "It's grown in the last two or three games, and that will continue to happen. We'll keep figuring out what Cole can do throwing the ball-wise, and just keep building that around him. That will give us more opportunities to push the ball down the field and do some different things to open that offense up and just continue adding to that, because it's taken us three games to kind of figure out where we are offensively."
Copeland's first start this season was in the second game, a 20-0 win at North Alabama on Sept. 11, and statistically the team has gotten better game by game since then. His arm may not be needed as much Saturday against the Keydets (3-2, 1-1), who won the SoCon title this past spring but rank last in the league and 122nd out of 123 Football Championship Subdivision teams in rushing defense, having allowed an average of 290.6 yards per game.
For the Mocs, though, it's good to know that Copeland can be relied upon if necessary.
"We're going to continue to figure out what we can do offensively," Wright said. "If he continues to grow that way, the offense will have an opportunity to be pretty good."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.