Mocs hope to show progress from spring at Finley today
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team has spent the past three weeks getting acclimated to a new coaching staff.
The Mocs get a chance today to show how much better they’ve gotten.
UTC’s spring game will be held today at noon at Finley Stadium, under a much different format than normal. The Mocs still have four practices after today, as they started two weeks later than usual to get defensive coordinator Tom Kaufman up to date. He was hired after Brandon Staley took a job with the Chicago Bears.
Head coach Tom Arth plans to run today as a glorified practice. The Mocs will go through individual drills for the first hour, with a 40-minute scrimmage planned in the second hour. After the scrimmage, the team will sign autographs on the field.
“I think the way we do our spring practice and spring game, it will be good,” Arth said. “So much of it will be practice for us, and I think that fans and people that come out to watch will get an inside look at how we practice and prepare on a daily basis, which I think is going to be really positive.”
Arth said he’s been impressed with the level of growth he’s seen since the first day of practice.
“More than anything, the players understand how we practice, what the goals are and what the purpose is,” he said. “In addition to the execution, we’re really seeing the practice habits starting to take shape.”
The players have had time to get comfortable with the coaching staff, which means getting used to a different level of energy. Coaches are getting involved in drills, practices are more up-tempo and the staff ’s overall enthusiasm in practice is rubbing off on the players, which makes the practices more spirited.
“The coaches are ready to do anything at any time,” senior quarterback Alejandro Bennifield said. “It affects us, makes us go harder, faster, just helps a lot.
“It’s like they’ve been our coaches ever since we got here.”
The defense has undergone the biggest change from last season to this, moving from the 4-2-5 look to now a 3-4. Responsibilities have changed for the returning players, while guys who haven’t even been in the two-deep rotation are now being asked to contribute or even start.
There’s an eagerness to begin to showcase what the new-look Mocs are going to look like. That happens today.
“Everyone’s asking, with the new staff, the great leaders we had and the guys we lost, are we still going to be good?” safety Lucas Webb said. “We have the same mindset of course — we want to go prove it — but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what others see, it’s about us getting better every day.” Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress. com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.