UTC on mission to make playoffs
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s hopes of making the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs rest on how the Mocs fare in their next three games.
That journey begins today with the first of three straight Southern Conference contests before a regular-season finale at South Carolina.
The Mocs (5-2, 3-2) host Virginia Military Institute (0-7, 0-6) at 3 p.m. at Finley Stadium. Today’s homecoming game will be followed by a trip to Furman and the final scheduled home game. That matchup is with Mercer (4-3, 3-1), which is tied for first in the loss column of the league standings with East Tennessee State University (6-2, 4-1) and Wofford (5-2, 4-1). Furman (2-4, 2-2) is behind UTC in the standings, but the Paladins own an impressive 34-14 win over Wofford, which beat ETSU last week.
If UTC wins its remaining SoCon games, the program’s fourth playoff berth in five seasons — but first for coach Tom Arth — is likely. Two more SoCon wins would make the playoffs a possibility but leave a ton of doubt.
A UTC loss today would nullify any hopes, though, and while the Keydets are winless this year, they have been competitive in more than half of their games and very close in some. They lost 34-32 to The Citadel last Saturday, 52-50 at Western Carolina on Sept. 22 and 27-24 to ETSU on Sept. 14.
Mocs offensive coordinator Justin Rascati likened the Keydets to last season’s UTC team, which started 1-7 before beginning its turnaround with a 23-21 win at Samford, which was ranked in the top 10 of both FCS polls at the time. Counting that game, the Mocs are 7-3 since the slow start, with their three losses by a combined 16 points — and one of those was the double-overtime defeat at Wofford
that followed last year’s trip to Samford.
“VMI shouldn’t affect our preparation and how we play,” Rascati said. “It’s a game, an opportunity for us to go out and perform to the best of our ability regardless of who we play. I told the team that VMI is the only team in the way of our goals right now. If we want to achieve the goals we set in January, we’ve got to win this game. We’ve got to go out, execute and play to the best of our ability because they’re a really good football team.
“I don’t care what the record is. Anybody can beat anybody on any weekend. We’ve got to treat everybody the same. They’ve got good players, they’re wellcoached, they have good schemes on both sides of the ball. We’re going to have our hands full, so we’re going to have to come out, play well and handle our business.”
A “one game” mentality has been the Mocs’ rallying point this season as they have worked to focus on the opponent at hand and not look ahead. But that could become more of a challenge in the final month of the regular season.
Seven of the seniors on the roster know what that playoff push is about after being around for all three of the UTC’s playoff appearances from 2014 to ’16. They’re eager not to repeat the painful experience of last season, when they missed out, which is why this week’s preparation was so important.
“What’s beyond that would be the worst thing we can talk about at this point,” Arth said earlier this week. “All of our focus needs to be on VMI. If it’s not, they’ll come in and beat us, so we need a great week from that standpoint and (to) lock in on what’s important. We have to realize that nothing else matters unless we come in and play really, really well on Saturday.”
Defensive lineman Isaiah Mack, who is fourth all-time at UTC with 16 sacks and 35 tackles for loss, is one of those seniors. Although he did not say he is worried about anything beyond VMI, the realization his career is coming to a close has been enough for the 6-foot-3, 305-pounder to voice the importance of finishing strong.
“We just have to focus on this a game at a time,” Mack said. “We know we’re only guaranteed four games, and if we don’t make the most of the four games, we’re going to be going home.
“I don’t think anybody wants to be going home for Thanksgiving.”
“Anybody can beat anybody on any weekend. We’ve got to treat everybody the same. They’ve got good players, they’re well-coached, they have good schemes on both sides of the ball.” – UTC OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JUSTIN RASCATI