John Frierson is in his seventh year at the Times Free Press and seventh year covering University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletics. The bulk of his time is spent covering Mocs football, but he also writes about women’s basketball and the big-picture issues and news involving the athletic department. A native of Athens, Ga., John grew up a few hundred yards from the University of Georgia campus. Instead of becoming a Bulldog he attended Ole Miss and read as much Faulkner as possible, graduating with a degree in Southern Studies. Among the stops in his career was a three-year stint covering Georgia sports for the Athens Banner-Herald and two years at the Florence (Ala.) TimesDaily, where he split his time covering Alabama and Auburn. In 2007, John earned Alabama Press Association first-place awards for column writing and game coverage. Contact John at jfrierson@timesfreepress.com or (423) 757-6268 or follow him on Twitter @MocsBeat. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.