Mark WiedmerFor 99.9% of the Tennessee Valley, Saturday was Saturday, Sunday is Sunday and Monday will be Monday.
Same as always.
Not in Mocsville, however. At least not in first-year University of Tennessee of Chattanooga football coach Rusty Wright's world.
In Wright's world, Saturday was Monday, Sunday was Tuesday and Monday will be Wednesday, mostly because 72 hours from 7 p.m. Monday, the Mocs will begin their 2019 season by welcoming Eastern Illinois to Finley Stadium.
"Because of that, it's not Saturday, it's Monday," Wright told his team as it wrapped up a morning practice atop the school's newly renovated Scrappy Moore Field practice facility. "And we've got to get better. We've got to have a better day tomorrow than today."
Later, Wright was asked to expand on that sense of urgency with a Thursday night game looming.
"We had to get on guys about getting their ankles taped today," he said. "We're less than a week from the first game of the season, and we're talking about taping ankles. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We shouldn't have to talk about stuff like that."
Perhaps that's why he also said, "I'm more worried about us than them."
Yet worried or not, the Mocs will begin their 112th season of college football against an Eastern Illinois squad attempting to rebound from a 3-8 record in 2018. The Mocs were 6-5 last year in Tom Arth's second and final season as coach.
"We're definitely ready to play somebody besides ourselves," quarterback Nick Tiano said. "I think we're going to be physically stronger than a year ago. Coach Wright has pushed that from the first day he got here. We're going to be more physical on the offensive and defensive lines. And we're going to have a faster tempo on offense. It's going to be fun to watch."
Having the season opener on a Thursday night also had the fifth-year senior hopeful more fans will come out to watch.
"I like it," said Tiano, a Baylor School graduate who is entering his third season with the Mocs after beginning his college football career at Mississippi State. "Playing at night should make it a little cooler and should make it easier for our fans to get off from work and come to the game."
Freshman running back Ailym Ford from Florence, South Carolina, doesn't expect any family members to make it to the game, but he does expect to see significant action on the Mocs' special teams.
"Right now, I'm on the kickoff team, the kickoff return team and the punt return team," said the 5-foot-9, 205-pounder. "I just have to play my role and be consistent to help us win the game. Special teams are often the difference between winning and losing."
The difference in winning and losing could often be razor thin for the Mocs this season. Counting walk-ons, 34 of the 95 players listed on the roster on the school's website are freshmen. Twenty more are sophomores. There are 26 juniors but just 15 seniors. Thirty of the players are transfers from either junior colleges or four-year programs.
In keeping with Tiano's comments about improved physicality, Wright - a former UTC player who had two stints as a Mocs assistant - noted: "I think we'll be a much more physical team. And being a physical team makes it less likely you'll quit when things aren't going your way. You'll fight through things that go against you."
You never know exactly what can go against you until it does. As Florida's season-opening win over Miami on Saturday night proved, turnovers, penalties and special teams are often the biggest differences between victory and defeat. That's especially true early in the schedule when everyone is trying to get the kinks out, and it's particularly true for a team adjusting to a new coaching staff.
But the freshman Ford painted a pretty precise picture of what it's been like to go through Wright's first preseason camp in charge of the Mocs.
"You're always thinking about football," he said. "Just waking up every day, hustling to class, hustling to practice. Other than school, it's football 24 hours a day, seven days a week."
No matter what day of the week it is, or what day Wright and his staff want you to think it is.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.