Chattanooga Football Has A New Excitement

The transformation of Chattanooga football last fall was quite remarkable and is one of the best turnaround stories in league history. This story began with Richmond’s march to the 2008 national title game and the stars aligned for the Mocs to write such a dramatic turnaround story in 2009.

Russ Huesman, the orchestrator of the Richmond Spiders title-winning defense, took the reigns of the UTC football program on Dec. 20, 2008, interviewing for the head coaching position, conveniently while the Spiders were in the “Scenic City” for their national title game against Montana.

Huesman, who played defensive back at UTC in the mid 1980's, hit the ground running looking to restore the program to respectability. He was taking over a program that had only two winning seasons in 12 years and hadn’t come close to a playoff bid in at least that period of time. Adding to the difficulty of reviving the stagnant tradition that had crept in to the school that had host the annual FCS national title game for the previous 12 seasons was picking up the pieces of a 1-11 2008 campaign, without a win against division competition.

The Mocs got more good news in the spring, as Tennessee Volunteer reserve quarterback B.J. Coleman decided to give the program even more of a boost by transferring to play back to his hometown in front of family and friends.

Things were beginning to come together for UTC, but hopes were somewhat disappointed when UTC was penalized by the NCAA for failing to keep its Academic Progress Report (APR) in order and were automatically disqualified from the FCS postseason, although no one really expected the Mocs to be in line to challenge for a postseason bid to begin with.

Along with the efforts and increased intensity by Huesman and his newly hired coaching staff during spring drills, there was also some serious marketing efforts going on by the school to help usher in change and a new mentality towards Chattanooga football. A staunch dedication was made to make the school’s football program a part of the community and history of the Scenic City.

Those efforts would pay off, as the Mocs drew more fans to Finley Stadium than it had since its opening in 1997. The Mocs drew a strong contingent of 14,002 fans to their home opener on a Thursday night against NAIA power Glenville State.

UTC’s play on the field in 2009 would support the increased efforts off the field to promote the product, as the Mocs finished 6-5, which was the most wins since the Mocs finished 7-4 in 2005. UTC saw a significant change in mentality on both sides of the football in 2009 and delighted the increased throngs of fans showing up to see them on Saturday afternoons, with a physical and opportunistic defense and one of the league’s most-balanced offenses.

The Mocs broke the all-time season ticket mark at Finley Stadium with 2,527 sold in 2009. The record ticket sales helped UTC tally its best home record (4-1) since the 1997 season.

Fittingly, the theme for the marketing campaign entering the 2009 campaign was "Restore The Glory" and that’s exactly what the Mocs would do. Instead of a "ghost stadium" so many SoCon opponents and fans had experienced when visiting Finley Stadium in the past, opposing coaching staffs had no need to creatively motivate their players.

The excitement and noise was there, even maybe a little hostility from the partisan Chattanooga crowds. In years past, it would have been considered a small victory if UTC could out-draw its opponents. That rarely happened when UTC faced perennial SoCon powers Appalachian State, Georgia Southern or Furman.

B.J. Coleman was as good as advertised in his first season donning the Chattanooga Blue and Gold, as he passed for 2,348 yards (seventh Moc to throw for over 2,000 yards in a season) and was the first quarterback to throw for over 2,000 yards since Cedric Stevens did so in 2004. Coleman also threw 17 TD passes and just nine interceptions.

One player that exemplified the overall improvement of the Chattanooga defense in 2009 was senior defensive end Josh Beard. Beard was an off-the-radar player for many coming into the campaign and few others, than maybe Nostradamus, would have prophesized him to win the league’s Defensive Player of the Year honor. However, after tallying 62 tackles and a league-leading 12 sacks, Beard was an easy selection for the award.

Beard was a big part of a defense that went from being the worst unit in the SoCon in 2008 (442.5 YPG) to finishing as one of the league’s top units in 2009 (307.7 YPG). Another stat that bared out the defensive improvement, is the Mocs held five of its 11 opponents to less than 20 points and the unit displayed one of the nation’s top aerial defenses.

The Mocs finished the campaign ranking 13th nationally in pass defense (158.9 YPG), while the unit’s 11 interceptions tied for second-most in the league in 2009.
The Mocs‘ defense wasn’t the only noticeable improvement in 2009. With Coleman at the controls of the UTC offense, the offense also saw some drastic changes for the better in 2009.

The Mocs finished the season ranking fourth in the league in passing offense (216.8 YPG), while ranking seventh in the league in total offense (301.8 YPG). Both were improvements for an offense that ranked dead last in the league in those two categories in the previous campaign.

Newcomers on the offensive side of the ball like Chris Awuah were also responsible for the revived excitement to the program that some think has been a sleeping giant in the SoCon for quite sometime. Awuah, a true freshman running back from Marietta, GA., did a nice job of coming in and filling the starting running back’s role after Bryan Fitzgerald went down with a second-straight season-ending injury.

Awuah proved to be effective both in the running game as well as the passing game, catching passes out of the backfield. He finished the season as the Mocs’ leading rusher, with 459 yards and four TDs on 153 rush attempts (3.0 YPC). For his efforts, he garnered SoCon All-Freshman Team honors.

The overall enhancements Huesman made in his inaugural season at the helm of the program were also evident in the post-season league awards, as a school-record eight Mocs players earned All-SoCon honors in 2009, while four Mocs would garner first-team All-SoCon accolades, led by All-American selection defensive end Josh Beard.

Senior wide receiver Blue Cooper (second team All-SoCon coaches and media), junior defensive back Buster Skrine (first team All-SoCon coaches), sophomore defensive back Jordan Tippitt (first-team All-SoCon media), and senior kicker Craig Camay (first team All-SoCon coaches) round out the all-league selections for the Mocs in 2009. Not surprisingly, Huesman garnered the co-Coach of the Year honor, sharing the accolade with Appalachian State’s Jerry Moore.

The Mocs will be challenged to respond to higher expectations in 2010, which is something this program is not accustomed to. The Mocs return 18 starters for the 2010 season, but must replace some significant talent, as linebacker Joseph Thornton and wide receiver Blue Cooper have both graduated.

UTC will again have Coleman returning to lead what should be a big-play offense this fall. Marlon Anthony, a red shirt freshman wide receiver that came in as a three-star recruit by rivals.com last fall, will give the Mocs a big-play threat to replace Cooper.

On defense, the Mocs were given a big boost with another big-time transfer via that Tennessee Volunteer pipeline, as Chris Donald will make his home at linebacker this fall, hoping to compensate for the loss of Thornton. Donald is a player that was a five-star recruit coming out of high school and will be the highest rated recruit to ever step foot on the Finley Stadium turf for the Mocs this fall.

Excitement will again be the buzzword on the UTC campus as the summer gives way to fall camp and the Mocs take the field for year two in the Russ Huesman era. In 2010, the Mocs will open the season on Sept. 4 against five-time defending SoCon champion Appalachian State at Finley Stadium. The argument could even be made that it will be the biggest game in the modern era of Chattanooga football. The Mocs haven’t beaten the Mountaineers since that epic, 59-56, win over ASU at Finley Stadium in 2004.

With its toughest conference game at the beginning of the 2010 schedule, the Mocs will be able to gauge just how much a factor they will be in the SoCon race from the outset of the campaign. The Mocs then have games against two of the best teams the Ohio Valley Conference has to offer, taking on the likely league favorite Jacksonville State on the road on Sept.11, followed by a return to Finley Stadium to face Eastern Kentucky on Sept. 18.

It’s safe to say that after facing at least two ranked opponents in the first three weeks of the season, we’ll know plenty about the Mocs by the end of September. The excitement will likely be around the Scenic City for a while, though, now that Huesman has returned to campus.