UTC quarterback Jacob Huesman gets ready to pass in the game against UT Saturday at Neyland Stadium.The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga athletic department's director of ticketing is enjoying a pleasant surprise this week.
"We're seeing a big push for reserved seating," Brent McMillan said Tuesday morning regarding Saturday's regular-season home football finale against Southern Conference rival Wofford.
"That tells me there's more demand for this game. It's probably the second or third highest demand for tickets this early in the week since I've been here."
Finally. Or, at least, hopefully. Finally a home moment to match the Mocs' momentum, which would guarantee them the league's automatic playoff berth for the first time in 30 years if they can topple the Terriers for their sixth league win in six outings.
Finally a chance for this community to show this team and future recruits what UTC football can be like when the Mocs' performance matches expectations.
Finally a chance to make up for all the past Saturdays when too many folks stayed home.
It's been that way too often within the borders of Hamilton County. And critics could justifiably scream, "Why shouldn't it be this way?"
When you haven't reached the NCAA playoffs since 1984, when you've rarely had so much as a sniff at them, it becomes difficult to generate widespread enthusiasm throughout a town that's heavily weighted toward Southeastern Conference loyalties to begin with.
So even though last year's team tied for a SoCon championship, it failed to reach the postseason almost as much as it failed to ignite the home fans -- three of the team's six home games drawing fewer than 10,000 following an opening-night loss to UT-Martin.
But McMillen believes Saturday will be worthy of a game that could send UTC to the playoffs. Especially with a sunny day forecast for the 1 p.m. kickoff, big brother Tennessee slated for an off week and the Alabama-LSU showdown not starting until 8 p.m.
"We've got people buying tickets that haven't purchased a ticket for two or three years," McMillan said. "I would expect a crowd of at least 10,000. Maybe 11- or 12,000 or more."
Junior quarterback Jacob Huesman, whose father Russ happens to be the Mocs' head coach, said he's ready for anything.
"A big crowd would be nice for the atmosphere," he said. "But we've played in front of sold-out stadiums and empty stands. We can't worry about that. You can tell there are playoff implications because we've had a little more support lately, but we've just got to stay focused and level-headed. We don't want to wind up with a share of the conference title. We want to win it outright."
Supporting the Mocs isn't the only reason to attend, of course. It's also Military Appreciation Day, which means it would still be worth attending if UTC stood 0-5 in the SoCon instead of 5-0. There's free admission for active and retired military personnel with any type of valid military ID. Additional tickets can be purchased for $5.
Beyond that, the famous bald eagle Challenger will fly at halftime; James Rogers will perform his Bicentennial song "Fly, Eagle, Fly," and 1,000 camo power-C T-shirts will be given out before the game.
There's also the opportunity to let this year's 13 seniors, almost all of them household names to Moc Maniacs -- Marquis Green, Tommy Hudson, Derrick Lott, Chris Mayes, Nick Pollard, Zack Rayl, Daniel Ring, Faysal Shafaat, Channing Smith, Davis Tull, Taharin Tyson, Muhasibi Wakeel and Keon Williams -- know how much they're appreciated and how much they'll be missed.
"All the years here," Mayes said. "Your last guaranteed home game (though a playoff game could certainly follow). Maybe this will be the big crowd we've always wanted to play in front of."
It certainly would be the big crowd this team deserves, if only for where this program was when Russ Huesman returned to his alma mater six years ago to rebuild a program that had won three or fewer games in seven of the eight seasons before he took over.
But McMillan knows better than most that what you deserve for effort is not always your reward without results, even if last week's 51-0 road rout of Western Carolina was the most impressive single result of Huesman's tenure.
"We can do all the promotions we want," he said. "But ultimately, they want to watch a winner."
A SoCon championship winner, to be precise.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.