Wiedmer: Sixth season might be most special yet for UTC's Jordan Jones and Tyrell Price

Jordan Jones and Tyrell Price never intended to be practicing college football in August of 2021 atop the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Scrappy Moore Field. After all, they both began their collegiate careers - Jones as a UTC walk-on defensive back, Price as an East Mississippi Community College running back - in the fall of 2016. They expected to be in the workforce now, be it in something other than sports or playing professional football if their childhood prayers and dreams somehow came true.

Only the frat boys from Animal House or those who must attend college part-time while working a full-time job to pay for it ever stay six years. But then COVID-19 hit. And everything changed, including college athletic eligibility.

"My mind would have been lost if you'd told me six years ago I'd still be here today" Jones said on another hot and humid Tuesday morning at Scrappy after he and Price and the rest of their teammates finished practice in preparation for next Thursday's season and home opener against Austin Peay at Finley Stadium.

"But nobody expected COVID, either."

So here they are, two of UTC's nine so-called "super seniors" (sixth- or seventh-year guys), and no one's happier to have them than UTC coach Rusty Wright.

"Tyrell Price is the ultimate team guy," said Wright. "Here he is a sixth-year senior, and he'll happily do anything we ask. Punt team. Kickoff team. Whatever helps us win. I love him to death. I wish we had 100 of him."

Then there's Jones, the former walk-on who played in every one of the Mocs' 13 games the first year he was on campus before redshirting the next year.

"Jordan's a self-made man," said Wright. "He's gone from a walk-on to a pretty good player. He's undersized (5-10 and 184 pounds) so he's going to get tested every game. But he's such a good technician, he's always where he's supposed to be. Really, really proud of him."

Staff file photo / University of Tennessee at Chattanooga running back Tyrell Price (23) carries the ball against Eastern Illinois at Finley Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2019 in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Both Jones and Price have been tested in multiple ways. Both have had to adjust to three different coaching staffs - Russ Huesman, Tom Arth and Wright. Being on the smallish side, Jones has had to prove to each of those staffs that he could contribute, that he deserved a scholarship.

As for Price, he's had to bounce back from a serious knee injury first suffered against Eastern Illinois in the first game of what would have been his senior season in 2019 after being a second-team All-Southern Conference selection his junior year.

"I tore my ACL against Eastern Illinois," said Price, "but tried to play the next week at Jacksonville State."

When he couldn't, he took a medical redshirt year. Then the NCAA granted all its athletes an extra year of eligibility if they chose to take it and the schools agreed to give it to them due to COVID.

"I've grown so much as a person," said Price, who has already earned a Criminal Justice degree and is now working on a masters in Sociology with an eye toward becoming a high school guidance counselor. "I've grown into a man. I've learned how to humble myself. I appreciate the game more."

Added Jones, who already has his Business Management degree, when asked how he's changed over six years: "I've become more mature. I've grown as a player, but I've grown as a person, too."

They've also watched their team grow in experience, talent and camaraderie.

"We've come together as a team," said Price.

"We understand what we're trying to do," Jones said. "We've grown so much, we're making very few mistakes now. There's a lot of excitement. The defense is growing every single day."

It is what you want to hear this time of year, especially with a team that welcomes back 72 of 76 letter winners. The Austin Peay game now a little more than a week away, the hardest work should be over. Time to fine tune and polish.

And Wright himself grudgingly admits he's beginning to like the attitude he's seeing these days.

"I didn't think (we were coming together) the first part of camp," he said. "There were a lot of (ticked off) people. "But I'm starting to see it more now."

There have been those who have wondered if the Mocs might have already won the school's first national title in football had they entered last spring's FCS playoffs rather than opting out midway through the spring schedule over COVID-19 concerns.

"It definitely sat on me a little bit," said Jones of the spring title eventually won by Sam Houston State. "But I also knew we had a bigger goal in mind."

That goal was and is to reach the Football Championship Subdivision title game in Frisco, Texas, at the conclusion of this 2021 fall season, which was one reason Wright didn't want to play in the spring, since he felt that might jeopardize the health of his team come autumn.

"We might not a win a game all year," Wright said. "But I couldn't go out and ask them to do what we needed to do knowing they wouldn't be ready if we were still recovering from the spring. I'll always err on the side of what's best for the health of my players."

If you want to know why players such as Jones and Price so wanted to play one more year at UTC, those words from Wright might be a good place to start.

Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.