UTC Mocs resume work for Samford showdown

UTC's Keon Williams (22), shown running past defenders in the Mocs' win at Austin Peay, and his teammates will be taking on Southern Conference co-favorite Samford this Saturday at Finley Stadium.

Russ Huesman

The grind begins this week. Coming off its only off week of the season, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football team is set to begin a laborious stretch of nine straight weeks of competition, including seven against Southern Conference foes.

"It's no big deal. That's our job. These guys are on scholarship, so that's their job," UTC coach Russ Huesman said. "Everybody else has to go to work 9 to 5, don't they? They get their one week of vacation, so there you go. It's a job."

This Saturday's job is a conference-opening home game against Samford in a matchup of two of last year's three champions and the two preseason picks to sit atop the league at season's end. While Huesman's Mocs are coming off a one-sided win at Austin Peay followed by the off week, the Bulldogs opened SoCon play with a 63-21 whipping of VMI last week.

That win also earned three Samford players conference recognition. Sophomore running back Denzel Williams ran 16 times for 178 yards and two touchdowns and was the SoCon offensive player of the week, while junior safety Josh Kimberlin was the defensive honoree with two interceptions and running back Krondis Larry was the league's freshman of the week after rushing for 128 yards and a TD.

"It was good to get everybody back healthy, everybody who was injured ready to go, and get our legs back fresh," said Mocs senior running back Keon Williams. "Now we need to go ahead and get this win and be 1-0 in the conference.

"With it being two of the best teams in the conference, it could really help us to go ahead and get them out of the way. It's going to be good to open up with them and hopefully give them what they gave us last year. It makes us want this one even more because we remember what happened last year and we don't want the same results."

Last year, with UTC needing only to beat Samford to claim the conference outright and earn an automatic playoff bid, the Bulldogs held on for a three-point overtime win that created a three-way tie atop the standings and left the Mocs out of the playoffs.

"We're not even going to talk about it," said Huesman, referring to whether he would use the memory of last season's game as added motivation this week. "It's a new season, new team, new players. A lot of newness about it. It's a conference game so it's pretty important, no matter what happened last year. It's important for them and for us.

"The bye week came at a good time for us because we'd been struggling offensively, so it gave us a chance to go back and figure out what we need to do offensively. We're not going to go to the I-formation or anything. We're going to run our offense -- it's just a matter of getting better at it."

Since there wasn't a game to prepare for, the Mocs spent much of last week fine-tuning after coaches evaluated the team through its first three games, but they also began to install the game plan for this weekend's showdown. UTC's players had Saturday and Monday off but were on Scrappy Moore Field on Sunday afternoon to resume working for Samford.

The Mocs have their next two opponents (including VMI on Oct. 4) at home but then will travel for five of their final eight games, including nonconference trips to Tennessee and Tennessee Tech.

"It's going to be a lot of games in a row, which can wear on you, but I like once you get in a groove just keep playing," said senior receiver Tommy Hudson. "Hopefully we'll get things going in the right way this week. We want to start the conference season off right, with a win, and that's something we can build on then. We're projected as the top two teams, so it should be an exciting game."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.