A Week 1 Deep Dive: UT Chattanooga
Credit: gomocs.com
****LANGUAGE WARNING****
By Clayton Kilgore
“Know Your Enemy.” -Rage Against the Machine
Good band, better advice.
Sidenote: (does Jon Reed know who this band is?)
“Know thy enemy and know yourself…” -Sun Tzu
Before you ask, the answer is no. I’ve never read anything by Sun Tzu nor do I plan to. I don’t have time to “read for fun” or “learn new things”. I’ve got way more important things to think about, such as COLLEGE FOOTBALL.
It’s officially Week 1 and the Tennessee Volunteers collegiate tackle football team has a game in 3 days.
We’ve been waiting all year for this! As my JV football coach would spray through a mouthful of Levi Garrett, “the hay’s in the barn”.
Being a Tennessee fan, I know the work and the preparation have been dutifully submitted by the players and coaches. Yet, I still find myself dealing with nervous energy, excitement, and tentative optimism*.
*- When I say “tentative optimism” that can be loosely translated as “I have placed a future bet on the Vols to be in the 12-team playoff” **. Not very tentative if you ask me.
** - Please don’t tell my wife***.
*** - Unless we make it.
We’re at an important juncture as a program and there’s a chance that the Vols will find themselves in the new, expanded 12-team playoff come December if everything goes according to plan.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves right yet. For all of our goals as a program to be realized, it’ll have to be a stepwise process. The first step, of course, being this Saturday.
You can’t get to 12-0 unless you start 1-0, that’s just a fact. The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs stand before us, guarding the first win.
We must get past them.
I like to know about the person or people we’re up against, so let’s start at the beginning and get this crash course started.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION & HISTORY:
The football program was first incepted in 1904 and it has an all-time record of 531-520-35.
UTC has been a member of the Southern Conference since 1977.
2023 Record: 8-5 (#8 in FCS, bounced in the second round of the playoff)
Head coach: Rusty Wright (2019-Present)
He succeeds Tom Arth, who is now the Pittsburgh Steelers QB coach.
Rusty Wright’s done a very solid job through his first five years, amassing a 30-22 record and never doing worse than .500 in a season.
Notable alumni:
Pumpy Tudors - 1989-1991
All-American punter
Very good name
Tennessee State Trooper. Beat up some guy while he was off-duty as a few years ago. Charge was dropped, though.
Terrell Owens - 1992-1995
The original “diva wide receiver”
NFL Hall of Famer
Former “The Challenge” on MTV contestant, quit when CT made fun of him.
Cole Strange - 2016-2021
Offensive lineman
First-round draft pick to the Patriots in 2022!
Dennis Haskins - ~1967-1970
Played basketball for UTC back in the day
Dropped out
“Mr. Belding” from Saved by the Bell
LOGO:
Credit: Sportslogos.net
“C” for Chattanooga. This has been their primary logo since 2008. Don’t worry, it wasn’t always JUST the big yellow “C”. They have some interesting alternate logos that almost all involve trains and/or birds.
Personally, I don’t care for birds. In fact, fuck birds. They don’t serve a purpose and I’ve had enough of their white shit stains on the hood of my black sport SUV.
The only birds that are chill are bald eagles. They keep to themselves, symbolize freedom, and sometimes live at Dollywood if they get sick. Not to mention they’re badass. What’s more jacked than an eagle thinking to itself, “I’d like to have fish for lunch”, then dive-bombing into a lake and plucking a fat, fresh salmon right out of the water?
Anyways, here’s the old primary logo (1997-2007) of a mockingbird that’s “driving a train”.
Credit: SportsLogos.net
Like a bird’s ever driven anything before. Besides, there’s nothing more ridiculous than the concept of “driving” a train. It is literally on tracks and goes in a straight line, easiest job ever.
Here’s the same train conductor bird, just havin’ a smile.
Credit: SportsLogos.net
Below is another alternate, tertiary logo, known affectionately as the “moc track”.
Credit: gomocs.com
I love a good merit-based helmet decal. These lovely little birds’ feet are the reward decals that UTC players can earn and slap on their lid.
The current primary helmet logo is passable, sure, but wouldn’t it be cooler if they utilized this supremely pissed-off mockingbird logo in some capacity?
@gomocsfootball on X
Gray alternates with this logo would pop.
Now that that’s out of the way and their aesthetic has been sufficiently nitpicked, we can move on to more relevant topics.
The UT Chattanooga Mocs are a fairly deep and experienced FCS team, with seven starters returning on both offense and defense, and a head coach that’s been reliable and steady.
OFFENSE:
Returning Starters: QB Chase Artopoeus, WR Javin Whatley, WR Sam Phillips, TE Jay Gibson, OL Dave Monnott III, OL Almarion Crim, OL Reid Williams, and OL Bryce Goodner.
I expect the Mocs to lean heavily on the passing game after losing their leading rusher. Lucky for them, Javin Whatley is back for another romp. Whatley is their most dynamic offensive player, and just so happens to be Chattanooga’s offensive X-Factor against Tennessee.
Whatley is Chattanooga’s best bet for a deep threat and averaged 17.8 yards per reception last season, finishing the year with 55 catches for 977 yards and 9 TDs.
Credit: gomocs.com
While he may not get vertical like Whatley, Sam Phillips figures to be the second option in their passing scheme. He caught 60 passes for 624 yards and 4 TDs last year.
Basically their entire entire offensive line is back and have good reps under their belts, but the bonus is Bryce Goodner.
Originally a Virginia Tech transfer, he sat out in 2023. He was an integral part of the ground attack in 2022 as a Socon All-Freshman allowing their then-RB Ailym Ford to average 5.2 ypc and tally 1,199 yards rushing.
All in all, there are 4 returning starters on the O-line tasked with protecting Chase Artopoeus, a UCLA transfer entering his second season as the starter. He’s coming off an efficient 2,672 yard 20 TD/7 INT campaign.
DEFENSE:
Returning Starters: DT Marlon Taylor, DT Quay Wiggles (elite name), LB Alex Mitchell, LB Kobe Joseph, DB Jordan Walker, DB Josh Battle, and DB Reuben Lowery.
On the other side of the football, the Mocs returned their top four tacklers and have a strong foundation from the front seven to the defensive backfield.
Alex Mitchell was all over the field totaling a team-best 78 tackles, adding 3.5 TFLs, 3 forced fumbles, a sack, and interception.
Jordan Walker, a do-it-all safety, is UTC’s defensive X-Factor. He was their second-leading tackler with 73 TT, but he’s also comfortable darting into the backfield (5.5 TFLs and 1.5 sacks). He forced a fumble and added 3 interceptions to his stat sheet last season.
Credits: gomocs.com
The Mocs lost their two most productive pass-rushers, but it’s going to be important to keep an eye on Marlon Taylor. He tends to get into the backfield and logged 8.5 TFLs to go with 5 sacks last season.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
The punter for UTC is named Clayton Crile and he averaged 43 yards a punt last year. Not bad!
Credit: gomocs.com
Sam Phillips returned punts for the Mocs last year, so I expect he’ll assume the same role. Javin Whatley is their kick returner and that’s a spot he could do some damage if assignments are missed.
SUMMARY:
At the end of the day, it’s an FCS team coming into Neyland Stadium for week 1. Temper expectations if you’re a Chattanooga fan, look for the small wins, and relish in those. The offensive line will be faced with their greatest test all season in James Pearce Jr. so expect calamity from time to time.
For the Vols, fast, live reps will go a long way in knocking off the offseason rust and the key for this game is health. I better see them boys out there stretching before the game.
Congratulations! You’re officially either A. A tad more prepared than you were before, or B. Slightly dumber for having read this.
Whether you’re expecting a 50-point blowout or just a stress-free, injury-free win, we can all agree on one thing.
Birds can go to hell.
