As they were walking off the Finley Stadium field Saturday, one University of Tennessee at Chattanooga assistant coach told another, "Now we've got to find ways to win.
"We can't keep making excuses."
The next step in what has been a frustrating season for the Mocs is to figure out exactly how to pull out wins. Their 20-14 loss to The Citadel was the fourth straight defeat but was the first game decided by fewer than 14 points as UTC has limped to a 1-7 record.
The Mocs' lone win was by a 56-point margin over Virginia Military Institute. Their average margin of defeat in their first six losses was 23.7 points, so Saturday's game was the first time the Mocs had an opportunity to execute down the stretch and claim what would have been a significant victory.
And they almost did.
Taking over with 3:18 to play and 80 yards to go for the win, freshman quarterback Cole Copeland started off with a pair of completions to Bingo Morton covering 31 and 8 yards, followed by a 12-yard run from Darrell Bridges that took the ball to the Citadel 29. Two plays later, Copeland found Joseph Parker on a crossing route for 17 yards to the 12-yard line, but from there, the drive stalled with three incomplete passes preceding an interception in the end zone by Aron Spann.
The result wasn't any different Saturday than it had been in losses to Western Carolina, Furman and Mercer, but the feel was different and the players felt it, too.
"We have a little bit of momentum," said Bridges, who rushed for 149 yards and two scores. "We're rolling now and we have to get back to the drawing board and look at a couple of things we did wrong where we didn't make that play. We'll figure things out; it comes from within. We've got to keep bringing that drive, that passion. Coach (Tom Arth) put it on us early last week and we carried it through the week.
"This week coming up, we've got to do that same thing. We have to carry that boost, that morale and play with a little bit of swag out here. I think we did that today."
Bridges was right. There was his 61-yard touchdown run in which he shed free from a couple of would-be tacklers and used a couple of downfield blocks by receiver Bingo Morton on his way into the end zone. There was another run by Bridges in the fourth quarter in which he looked stopped for no gain, spun out of the pile and fell forward for a first down.
But as has been the case all season, drive-killing negative plays or turnovers hampered the offense. On the game's first drive, the Mocs experienced some early success, gaining two first downs on their first three plays before Copeland was sacked for a 6-yard loss. Two plays later, he was intercepted.
The Mocs moved the ball 30 yards on their second drive only for it to ultimately stall before touchdowns on two of their next four possessions built a lead. By the time the Mocs put together another serious drive, it was too late.
"We had some opportunities early in the game," Arth said. "We were getting stops; they were having a very difficult time moving the ball. But it took a while for us to get going offensively, then we got it going, then it took a while to get it going again. It's that inconsistency that hurts you, and you've got to take advantage when you get three-and-outs or quick stops. You've really got to take advantage of that offensively against a team like that and the style of offense they run.
"We just didn't do that throughout the course of the game."
Mocs get wide receiver commitment
T.J. Horton, a 6-foot-3, 173-pound receiver at Cartersville (Ga.) High School, became the Mocs' fifth commitment for the 2018 signing class over the weekend.
Horton has 42 catches for 586 yards and nine touchdowns for the top-ranked team in Georgia Class AAAA, which also features Clemson quarterback commitment Trevor Lawrence, who just broke former Tigers and current Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson's career passing yardage total.
Horton had 31 catches for 425 yards and a pair of touchdowns as a junior.
Horton joins Dalton offensive lineman Dylan Cole; Boyd-Buchanan safety Kohl Henke, who projects to play linebacker; Hewitt-Trussville receiver Logan Pitts, who projects to play tight end; and Bradley Central receiver Lameric Tucker as those who have pledged to join the UTC program next season.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.